Ukraine in bloody battle to oust pro-Russian gunmen

SLAVYANSK, Ukraine, Apr 13 (AFP): Kiev said Sunday that several had been left "dead and wounded" in fighting to oust pro-Russian gunmen holed up in a police station in the restive east, as Washington warned Moscow to de-escalate the crisis or face the consequences.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said both sides had suffered casualties in the offensive in Slavyansk that threatens to further escalate tensions with Russia, which has 40,000 troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border and has warned Kiev against the use of force.
"There are dead and wounded on both sides," Avakov wrote on his Facebook page.
"On our side-an SBU (Ukrainian Security Service) officer. On the side of the separatists-an unidentified number... The separatists have started to protect themselves using human shields."
Helicopters hovered low over the poor mining town, where a thick column of black smoke could be seen, an AFP photographer said.
Residents, mostly women, huddled in the cold under light rain in front of barricades protecting the police building. Armed separatists have also set up a checkpoint at the entry to the town.
Avakov earlier announced that units from "all of the country's force structures" were taking part in the first stiff response from Kiev to the unrest sweeping the volatile eastern part of the country.
He said the gunmen had opened fire on Ukraine's special forces and were "shooting to kill".
With military precision and dressed in unmarked fatigues, unknown gunmen on Saturday launched a series of attacks against security buildings in the tinderbox eastern rust belt.
This came after a week of soaring tensions as pro-Russians demanding greater autonomy, or to join nearby Russia, stepped up protests in the region ahead of May 25 presidential polls.
The protesters refuse to recognise the new pro-Western government in Kiev, which swept to power on the back of bloody winter protests against fallen president Viktor Yanukovych's decision to reject closer ties with the European Union and move closer to Russia.
Moscow has kept up crushing pressure on the new leaders, first seizing Crimea then threatening to cut off gas supplies and trade with the heavily indebted nation all while keeping up a massive military presence along the eastern border.
The West has expressed alarm that Russia is deliberately stoking tension in the heavily Russified east in order to justify a Crimea-style invasion.
"Militants in eastern Ukraine were equipped with Russian weapons and the same uniforms as those worn by Russian forces that invaded Crimea," US ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter.
Avakov said the events were seen in Kiev as an "act of aggression" by Russia, which has flatly denied any role in the unrest sweeping Ukraine's east.