Ukraine Insurgency

The Black Sea resort of Odessa has now been caught up in the revolutionary passion that has overtaken eastern Ukraine. The death of up to 40 pro-Russian supporters who locked themselves into a trade union building after a skirmish with pro-Ukrainian supporters created a deadly theatre of confrontation when Kyiv supporters threw Molotov cocktails setting the building aflame as a crowd some ten thousand in number rallied close by in support of the government

• 

• Pro-Russian supporters shout slogans during a rally inside a city police department after they stormed it in Black Sea port of Odesa May 4, 2014. Pro-Russian militants stormed a Ukrainian police station in Odesa on Sunday and freed fellow activists as the prime minister blamed police corruption there for dozens of deaths in rioting on Friday. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

This, after rebels shot down two Ukrainian helicopters killing the pilots days earlier, and hitting another during the Ukrainian military's assault on pro-Russian strongholds north of the regional centre of Donetsk. In Slavyansk many rebels had been killed, wounded or taken prisoner according to Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov, with his numbers scoffed at by Russia-supporters who claim one only of their activists had been killed.

Four pro-Russian militants lay on the ground with hands tied after being arrested on suspicion of the implementation of MANPADS (Man-portable air-defense systems ) shots to a helicopter of the Ukrainian forces on May, 2, 2014 at a checkpoint near Slavyansk . Ukraine’s defence ministry on Thursday raised the toll during an assault on the rebel-held town of Slavyansk to two of its helicopters shot down and two servicemen killed. Authorities say the pro-Russian insurgents used shoulder-launched rockets to bring down the two Mi-24 helicopters. Earlier, the interior minister said one of those killed was a helicopter pilot. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images

Ukrainian troops followed by armoured personnel carriers and infantry dug in beside a bridge as pro-Russian militias were massed on the other side. Hordes of screaming civilian supporters of the People's Republic of Donetsk kept the Ukrainian military from successfully maneuvering, in fear of harming civilians blocking vehicles with their bodies. The result; the military operation had limited success.

In total, troops loyal to Kyiv had been incapable of much headway in their intention to reclaim control of Slavyansk. Of the 15 cities and towns in eastern Ukraine where those boasting they represent the "People's Republic of Donetsk" have seized municipal buildings and police stations after well-organized assaults during which foremost among them were covert Russian officers to lead the way, then vanish when the work was done.

A Ukrainian military helicopter lands at a checkpoint in the village of Andreevka, 7 km. from the center of the southern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, which is held by pro-Russian rebels. Photo by Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

Several of the heavily fortified checkpoints were dismantled by Ukrainian soldiers and a security cordon placed around the town. Wearing masks and combat fatigues, insurgents held three checkpoints on the Donetsk to Slavyansk road, checking vehicles and documents of foreign journalists.

Back in Odessa, militants freed almost 70 fellow activists from a Ukrainian police station where they were being held. Chanting "We will not forgive!" and "Russia!", the militants smashed windows and broke through the gate at the compound two days after the 40 activists had died after clashes with pro-Kyiv groups where a brawl was triggered and four people were shot. And the confrontation ended with the activists barricading themselves in the building that was later fire-bombed.

"If the law enforcement system in Odessa had worked not exclusive on the 'Seventh Kilometre' and had protected people, then these terrorist organizations would have been foiled", lamented Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, pointedly critical of the Odessa police who had allowed 67 activists to walk free of detention.

Acting President Oleksandr Turchinov claimed Russian special forces were hard at work destabilizing Ukraine, aided and abetted by "guest stars from Transdniestria", a territory in eastern Moldova, 50 kilometres from Odessa in eastern Moldova, with a Russian military base. Separatists, he said, while having met resistance in Odessa, the Eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions where pro-Russian militants had greater strength, were helped with police in disarray.

"In these regions ... there are whole structures working together with the terrorists", he said in a television interview, calling the anti-Kyiv 'terrorists', just as the pro-Moscow groups and Russian authorities term the new interim government as right-wing and 'Nazis'. "This", he said, "is a colossal problem", in an a rather understated conclusion.