*BREAKING NEWS* Ukraine: Helicopter Shot Down Over Slavyansk
2 Votes
A Ukrainian helicopter has been shot down over the pro-Russian stronghold of Slavyansk as fighting there continues to worsen.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said the pilots had survived but elsewhere in the east of the country four paramilitary policemen were shot dead in fighting.
A number of other rebels and civilians are also thought to have been killed or injured, according to Sky’s Stuart Ramsey, who is in eastern Ukraine.
The helicopter, an Mi-24, came under fire from a heavy machine gun and crashed into a river.
The ministry said in a statement the crew were evacuated to a nearby camp but did not give any detail of their condition.
At least three other helicopters have been shot down by pro-Russian rebels in the violence that is increasing in eastern parts of the country.
Pictures shot by news wires showed pro-Russia rebels carrying rocket launchers and rocket propelled grenades.
The four police officers were killed in fighting near Slavyansk after Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said they were ambushed by separatist rebels on the outskirts of the city of 118,000.
The fighting has been intensifying since the Ukrainian forces began an operation to remove the rebels from the strongholds in a number of eastern towns and cities.
Reuters reported that cars were ferrying the wounded from the sites of the clashes but there were no figures for fatalities on the side of the separatists.
One civilian woman in Slavyansk was reported to have been hit in the head by a bullet, and pictures showed the funeral of a 21-year-old nurse Yulia Izotova, in Kramatorsk, who was said to have been killed in fighting in the surrounding area in the days before.
Bookmarks