Ukraine plans ‘nasty surprise’ against rebels
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s government kept up military pressure against pro-Russia rebels Tuesday, threatening them with a “nasty surprise,” while militants said theywere preparing to fight back after losing their main stronghold.
President Petro Poroshenko, drawing confidence from the fall of the rebel bastion of Slovyansk over the weekend, named a new chief of military operations in the east following his appointment of a new defense minister who again demanded that separatists lay down their arms.
A security official said the government’s plan to clear rebels from Donetsk and Luhansk would come as a “nasty surprise” for the insurgents.
But Poroshenko— whose officials have ruled out any more unilateral cease-fires — kept the door open to a further round of indirect peace talks with separatist leaders, naming a possible venue in a governmentcontrolled monastery town in the east.
Poroshenko on Tuesday visited Slovyansk, which is in eastern Ukraine’s industrialized Donbass region.
“Until today, Slovyansk was a symbol of terror and violence. Today, Slovyansk is a symbol of a free Donbass, and I thank you for that,” he said on the city’s main square.
Meanwhile, signs emerged of a split in separatist ranks over the fall of Slovyansk, with a powerful field commander questioning the pullout from the city.
The rebels’ loss of Slovyansk marks a major breakthrough in Kiev’s fight against Russia-backed separatists. But one rebel leader played down its loss and said the hundreds of fighters who were able to move from the town to the regional capital, Donetsk, were preparing a command structure to defend that city and hit back.