Ukrainian forces yesterday flushed pro-Russian rebels from their main eastern stronghold after a devastating shelling campaign that leveled much of the city, but delivered Kiev its biggest success of the campaign.
The self-proclaimed mayor of Slavyansk confirmed to reporters that the rebels had abandoned the industrial city of 120,000. Russia’s Channel One state television also said in a news bulletin that the separatist bastion was “under the Ukrainian forces’ control.”
Ukraine’s ability to win back Slavyansk — home to one of the country’s biggest weapons storage facilities that fell to the insurgents on April 6 — represents a key turning point in three months of low-scale warfare that threatened the survival of the ex-Soviet state.
Photo: AFP
“This morning, intelligence reported that [Igor Strelkov] Girkin and a substantial part of the rebels had fled Slavyansk,” Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook.
Ukraine alleges that Strelkov is a colonel in Russia’s military intelligence unit known as the Chief Intelligence Directorate (GRU).
Both Strelkov and Moscow deny any GRU link, despite Western claims that the Kremlin is covertly funding and arming the uprising to destabilize Kiev’s new pro-European leaders and retain control over Russian-speaking eastern regions of Ukraine.
The city’s self-proclaimed mayor confirmed that Slavyansk — abandoned by about half its residents and largely cut off from water and power supplies — was nearly empty.
“The fighters have left. The Ukrainian army is not yet in Slavyansk. There are no authorities in the town,” Volodymyr Pavlenko said by telephone.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko — a 48-year-old chocolate baron who stormed to victory in a May 25 election thanks to his vow to quickly resolve the country’s worst crisis since independence in 1991 — ordered his forces to raise the national flag over Slavyansk.
“Local residents are handing over [to government forces] the weapons abandoned by the rebels,” Poroshenko said in a statement.
“This is the disarmament I was talking about when I unveiled my peace plan for resolving the situation in the east.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: People who do not comply with the ban after a spoken warning would be reported to the police, the airport company said on Friday Taoyuan International Airport Corp on Friday announced that riding on vehicles, including scooter-suitcases (also known as “scootcases”), bicycles, scooters and skateboards, is prohibited in the airport’s terminals. Those using such vehicles should manually pull them or place them on luggage trolleys, the company said in a Facebook post. The ban intends to maintain order and protect travelers’ safety, as the airport often sees large crowds of people, it said, adding that it has stepped up publicity for the regulation, and those who do not comply after a spoken warning would be reported to the police. The company yesterday said that
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS: ‘No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path,’ William Lai said, urging progress ‘without looking back’ President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged parties across the political divide to democratically resolve conflicts that have plagued domestic politics within Taiwan’s constitutional system. In his first New Year’s Day address since becoming president on May 20 last year, Lai touched on several issues, including economic and security challenges, but a key emphasis was on the partisan wrangling that has characterized his first seven months in office. Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism into today’s democracy and that democracy is the future, Lai said. “No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path for Taiwan,” he said. “The only choice
CORRUPTION: Twelve other people were convicted on charges related to giving illegal benefits, forgery and money laundering, with sentences ranging from one to five years The Yilan District Court yesterday found Yilan County Commissioner Lin Zi-miao (林姿妙) guilty of corruption, sentencing her to 12 years and six months in prison. The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office in 2022 indicted 10 government officials and five private individuals, including Lin, her daughter and a landowner. Lin was accused of giving illegal favors estimated to be worth NT$2.4 million (US$73,213) in exchange for using a property to conduct activities linked to the 2020 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential and legislative election campaigns. Those favors included exempting some property and construction firms from land taxes and building code contraventions that would have required
TECH CORRIDOR: Technology centers and science parks in the south would be linked, bolstering the AI, semiconductor, biotech, drone, space and smart agriculture industries The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a “Southern Silicon Valley” project to promote the development of an artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductor industry in Chiayi County, Tainan, Pingtung County and Kaohsiung. The plan would build an integrated “S-shaped semiconductor industry corridor” that links technology centers and science parks in the south, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said yesterday after a Cabinet meeting. The project would bolster the AI, semiconductor, biotech, drone, space and smart agriculture industries, she said. The proposed tech corridor would be supported by government efforts to furnish computing power, workforce, supply chains and policy measures that encourage application and integration
RSS