http://vk.com/club61259467http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1 ... 85010.htmlIntense Fighting Flares in Eastern UkraineAt Least 13 Soldiers Killed; Attacks Expected to Increase Before Presidential Elections
By James Marson
Updated May 22, 2014 4:12 p.m. ET
OLHYNKA, Ukraine—Just after dawn, masked men in four minivans roared up to an army checkpoint near this eastern village and opened fire with guns and grenade-launchers, leaving at least a dozen soldiers dead and more than 30 injured, according to fellow soldiers and local residents.
The attack Thursday was the deadliest in weeks of fighting, as government forces have tried to crush pro-Russia separatists ahead of presidential elections Sunday that are supposed to help glue the country together.
The clashes in the volatile Donetsk and Luhansk regions worsened even as Russia, which has already annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, began edging its troops back from its neighbor's eastern border. Western military officials confirmed some movement was under way, although they said large numbers remained.
The separatists have vowed to derail the vote, and the surge in deadly violence could be an attempt to intimidate people into staying home, depressing the turnout. Russian officials have said the instability casts doubt on the legitimacy of any results.
Andriy Parubiy, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said the separatists were expected to increase their attacks in the remaining days ahead of Sunday's vote. Ukraine blames Russia for fueling the insurgency with men and weapons, a charge Moscow denies.
The violence also highlighted the challenge the government faces even if the vote goes ahead: heavily armed insurgents who can strike at will across the east against often poorly trained military units.
The checkpoint attacked was manned by reservists on a road some 32 kilometers, or 20 miles, south of the regional capital of Donetsk that had been peaceful until now, far from the main fighting.
Officials in the capital Kiev said pro-Russia rebels killed at least 13 soldiers in the Donetsk region, and reported several attacks on troops across the east.
"Today a major operation was prepared on all fronts and it was repulsed," Mr. Parubiy told a briefing in Kiev, according to the Interfax news agency.
Separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk confirmed fighting on several fronts and said at least 20 people were killed, though it wasn't clear whether that included the army.
In the self-declared Luhansk People's Republic, one of the two regions where separatists have declared independence, the self-styled "people's governor" declared martial law Thursday as a result of heavy fighting around the city of Lysychansk. Interfax reported from Luhansk that stores, schools and state agencies were closing early.
Separatists near Luhansk blew up a bridge over the Siverskiy Donets river in several hours of fighting, Interfax reported, citing local witnesses. Separatists also took over four coal mines in the Luhansk region and demanded workers turn over explosives used for mining, the Energy Ministry said.
The worst fighting appeared to take place near Volnovakha, a town of some 20,000 on the road south from Donetsk.
The army unit of some 50 reservists from the west of Ukraine had set up a checkpoint with three armored vehicles between the villages of Olhynka and Blahodatne on Tuesday, according to local residents.
Shortly after 4 a.m. Thursday, around 20 masked, heavily armed men in minivans drove up to the checkpoint and opened fire from automatic weapons and grenade launchers, according to the residents and two soldiers at Volnovakha hospital.
Photographs and video of the aftermath uploaded to YouTube showed several burned-out military vehicles and dead soldiers lying in a field nearby.
The Defense Ministry said rebels had hit an armored vehicle, which exploded along with its ammunition. Residents said they saw a huge plume of smoke.
"Under heavy fire from mortars, grenade-launchers and heavy machine-guns, our boys died for Ukraine," said acting President Oleksandr Turchynov in Kiev.
He gave the death toll as 13, but other officials later said it was 16.
In nearby Volnovakha, ambulances were still ferrying corpses to the hospital midafternoon.
"We just keep bringing them then going back to fetch more," said the driver of an ambulance, who was washing down a stretcher after delivering a charred corpse to the morgue.
At the hospital, a man in fatigues who said he was an officer of the 51st brigade said 15 members of the unit had been killed and 31 injured.
"Only seven didn't have a scratch," he said. He said he had received a report on the attack from soldiers who were there.
He said the troops had managed to fire back at the unidentified attackers, causing casualties.
After a 15-minute firefight, the masked men discussed whether to finish the injured soldiers off, but decided to leave them.
"I don't know who they were. They looked like professionals, some kind of mercenaries," he said. "They did it so everyone else could see."
Local residents said the vehicles used by the attackers looked like armored cars used by banks for cash deliveries.
Russia's Kremlin-friendly Life News website reported the vehicles carried the markings of PrivatBank, owned by Igor Kolomoisky, a tycoon and governor of a neighboring region, which has resisted the separatists.
The bank issued a statement saying separatists had hijacked 15 of its armored vehicles in the last two weeks "to organize provocations."
The residents and the officer said two helicopters had flown over the area two hours after the attack and shot up the road, destroying one vehicle that the attackers had left behind.
The Associated Press cited the leader of one of several separatist groups, based in the town of Horlivka near the regional capital of Donetsk, as claiming responsibility for the attack. His group displayed weapons that it said were seized from the soldiers, the AP reported.
Infighting appeared to have hobbled separatists in recent days. At least one "minister" in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic left after a disagreement. The self-appointed mayor of Slovyansk told reporters that the man didn't accept the authority of the separatists.
But rebels still have sufficient resources to fight Ukraine's army and disrupt the presidential ballot.
Election officials said that more than half of the 34 district election commission are under control of the separatists.
Ukraine's military operation in the east is also making slow progress, amid anger from some locals about the troops' presence.
In Volnovakha, one man asked troops perched on an armored vehicle why they were there. "Why don't you take the Russian flag down from your town hall?" retorted a soldier.
