Ukraine moves special forces to Odessa to halt spread of rebellion

Pro-Russian rebels shot down a Ukrainian helicopter in fierce fighting near the eastern town of Slaviansk today, and Kiev drafted police special forces to the southwestern port city of Odessa to halt a feared westward spread of rebellion.

Ukraine said the Odessa force, based on "civil activists", would replace local police who had failed to tackle rebel actions at the weekend. Its dispatch was a clear signal from Kiev that, while tackling rebellion in the east, it would vigorously resist any sign of a slide to a broader civil war.

Odessa, with its ethnic mix from Russians to Ukrainians, Georgians to Tatars a cultural contrast to the pro-Russian east, was quiet on Monday. Ukrainian flags flew at half-staff for funerals of some of the dozens killed in clashes on Friday.

But in the east, fighting intensified around the pro-Russian stronghold of Slaviansk, a city of 118,000, where rebel fighters ambushed Ukrainian forces early in the day.

The Interior Ministry said five paramilitary police were killed. Separatists said four of their number had also died.

The sound of an air-raid siren could be heard in the centre of Slaviansk, and a church bell rang in the main square.

The self-declared pro-Russian mayor of Slaviansk Vyacheslav Ponomarev said. “(The Ukrainians) are deploying ever more forces here. Recently there was a parachute drop. ... For us, they are not military, but fascists.”

Russia’s foreign ministry called on Kiev to “stop the bloodshed, withdraw forces and finally sit down at the negotiating table”. It also published an 80-page report detailing “widespread and gross human rights violations” in Ukraine over the past six months for which it blamed the new government and its Western allies.

Russia denies Ukrainian and Western charges it is seeking to undermine the country of 45 million and using special forces to lead the insurgency, as it did before annexing Crimea in March.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he feared neither side could now control forces unleashed.

"I'm convinced we are struggling against a situation that has taken on a dynamic of its own. There are groups in eastern Ukraine that are not listening to either Kiev ... or Moscow. "

Nato’s top military commander, General Philip Breedlove, said today he did not think regular Russian troops would enter eastern Ukraine, saying Moscow could achieve its goals through other means.

Gen Breedlove told a defence conference in the Canadian capital, Ottawa the most likely course of action was that Russian president Vladimir Putin "will continue doing what he's doing, discrediting the (Ukrainian) government, creating unrest, trying to set the stage for a separatist movement" to ensure Moscow maintained a hold on eastern Ukraine."

Ukraine’s defence ministry said rebels had shot down a military helicopter, the fourth since Friday, with heavy machine-gun fire. The helicopter crashed into a river and the crew was rescued but there were no details of their condition.

Agencies