Rebels holding out for more arms
Ukrainian forces have raised their national flag over a police station in the eastern city of Luhansk that was for months under rebel control, Kiev said yesterday, in what could be a breakthrough in Ukraine’s efforts to crush pro-Moscow separatists.
Ukrainian officials said, however, the rebels were fighting a desperate rearguard action to hold on to Luhansk – which is their supply route into neighbouring Russia – and that the flow of weapons and fighters from Russia had accelerated.
The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany held a meeting in Berlin on the crisis, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying afterwards they would report back to their leaders and possibly agree on Tuesday or Wednesday on how to continue talks.
‘‘The aim remains to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine and to prevent future victims,’’ Steinmeier said.
Russia denies helping the rebels and accuses Kiev, backed by the West, of triggering a humanitarian crisis through indiscriminate use of force against Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine who reject the Ukrainian government’s rule.
Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said government forces fought separatists in Luhansk on Sunday and took control of a key police station.
‘‘They raised the state flag over it,’’ Lysenko said.
Separatist officials in Luhansk could not be reached by telephone, and a separatist spokeswoman in Donetsk, the other rebel stronghold, said she had no information about Luhansk.
A photograph posted on Twitter appeared to show a Ukrainian flag on the front of the police station, but it could not be independently verified.
If confirmed, the taking of the police station is significant because Luhansk has for several months been a rebel redoubt where Kiev’s writ has not run. Separatists still control sections of the border linking Luhansk region to Russia.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced another military success, saying his forces had recaptured a railway junction at Yasynuvata, north of Donetsk, which he said had ‘‘strategic significance’’.
The four-month-old conflict in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east has reached a critical phase, with Kiev and Western governments watching nervously to see if Russia will intervene in support of the increasingly besieged rebels.
The rebels responded with defiant rhetoric and fighting.
Ukrainian authorities said yesterday the separatists shot down a Ukrainian warplane.
Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armoured vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1200 fighters trained in Russia. He said they planned to launch a major counter-offensive.
‘‘They are joining at the most crucial moment,’’ he said in a video recorded on Saturday.
The assertion that the fighters were trained in Russia is awkward for Moscow, which has repeatedly denied allegations from Kiev and its Western allies that it is providing material support to separatist fighters.
‘‘We have repeatedly said that we don’t supply any equipment there,’’ said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to turn the tide of the fighting back in their favour.