Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has announced the beginning of an operation of law enforcement bodies in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, led by the anti-terrorist center (ATC) of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
“The ATC of SBU is in charge. Forces of all of the country’s law
enforcement bodies are involved,” Avakov posted on his Facebook page
Sunday morning.
Later Avakov posted that shooting began in the center of Sloviansk.
“Tell all civilians to leave the city center – not to leave their
homes, not to come up to the windows. Separatists opened fire for effect
in the direction of the approaching special force without saying a
word,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, photos of helicopters flying over Sloviansk are being circulated in social networks.
On Saturday a new hotspot appeared on the map of Eastern Ukraine –
Slovyansk, a town in the north of Donetsk region with a population
slightly exceeding 110,000 people.
On Saturday morning Avakov wrote on his Facebook page: “09:30 am. Armed
people in camouflage have seized the district police department in
Sloviansk. Here the reaction will be very tough. As is the difference
between a protestor and a terrorist.”
Avakov wrote on Facebook later: “A special forces team has been sent to Sloviansk. Zero tolerance towards armed terrorists.”
The riot policemen were ordered to go to Sloviansk to storm the
police building, but the officers refused to comply with the order and
returned to their permanent base in Donetsk, a Rossiya 24 correspondent
reported.
A spokesperson for the Donetsk regional police Ihor Diomin said on
Saturday that about 15-20 armed people were inside the building of a
district police department in Sloviansk. “So far the occupiers have not
put forward any demands,” he said in a telephone interview with the
Ukrainian television Channel 5. Of the policemen who were inside the
building at the time of the seizure, only on-duty officers are still
there, the others were let go home.
Later the Interior Ministry press service circulated a statement
saying that the people who seized the police HQ in Sloviansk did so to
get hold of arms, while the press service of the Donetsk regional police
reported the details of the seizure noting that the office of SBU in
Sloviansk was also taken over.
