MOSCOW, July 5 (AFP): Pro-Russian fighters have abandoned their main stronghold of Slavyansk but Ukrainian troops are yet to enter the town, the town's self-proclaimed separatist mayor told AFP.
"The fighters have left. The Ukrainian army is not yet in Slavyansk. There are no authorities in the town," Volodymyr Pavlenko said by telephone.
Slavyansk has been at the centre of a renewed onslaught by Ukrainian forces since they relaunched a military offensive to oust the insurgents this week.
A resident in the symbolic insurgent bastion told AFP that the rebel gunmen who have been holding the city for some three months vanished unexpectedly.
"The departure of the fighters was a surprise. Nobody was aware it was happening," said inhabitant Kolya Cherep.
"This morning I saw that there were no fighters in front of the town hall then I saw that there were none manning the barricades in town," he said.
A top rebel official confirmed that their fighters were forced to leave the town in the face of intensified Ukrainian operations.
"Due to the overwhelming numerical superiority of the enemy our men were forced to abandon their positions," Oleksandr Borodai, prime minister of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic said in a statement posted on the rebels' website.
Pro-Russian fighters have fled Slavyansk
FE Team | Published: July 06, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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