Ukraine threatens rebels with \\\'nasty surprise\\\' in new push

Ukraine's government kept up military pressure against pro-Russian rebels on Tuesday, threatening them with a "nasty surprise" while the militants said they were preparing to fight back after losing their main stronghold. President Petro Poroshenko, drawing confidence from the fall of the rebel bastion of Slaviansk at the weekend, named a new chief of military operations in the east following his appointment of an aggressive new defence minister who again demanded the separatists lay down their arms. A security official said the government's plan to clear rebels from the two big towns of Donetsk and Luhansk would come as a "nasty surprise" for the insurgents. But Poroshenko - whose officials have ruled out any more unilateral ceasefires - kept the door open to a further round of indirect peace talks with separatist leaders, naming a possible venue in a government-controlled monastery-town in the east. Poroshenko on Tuesday visited Slaviansk, which lies in eastern Ukraine's industrialised Donbass region. ‘Until today Slaviansk was a symbol of terror and violence. Today Slaviansk is a symbol of a free Donbass and I thank you for that,’ he said on the city's main square in front of what was one of the rebels' main headquarters. Meanwhile, signs emerged of a split in separatist ranks over the fall of Slaviansk with a powerful field commander critically questioning the pull-out from the rebel stronghold. The rebels' loss of Slaviansk marks a major breakthrough in Kiev's three-month long fight against Russian backed separatists who are now calling in vain for military help from Moscow. One rebel leader played down its loss as a military expedient and said the hundreds of fighters who were able to move from the town to the regional capital Donetsk were preparing a command structure to defend that city and hit back, according to YAHOO NEWS.