The Donbas Special Battalion has taken control of parts of Ukraine's Donetsk region, the regional administration said on May 21.
“To date it can be stated that forces supporting the idea of a united Ukraine have joined in the fight against the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’. In the city and district of Dobropillya and the districts of Oleksandrivsk and Velyka Novosilka, the Donbas Special Battalion has taken full control of the administrative buildings and adjoining territory,” the administration said in a statement.
Large amounts of heavy weapons were pulled into the districts of Velyka Novosilka, Volnovakha, Maryinka and Starobesheve as National Guard forces were setting up guard posts, it said.
During the planned presidential election on May 25, the Donbas battalion would guard polling stations in four districts.
There will be local elections in 19 cities, towns and villages of Donetsk region the same day.
“In the cities, towns and districts of the region where local authorities are under the full control of the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic,’ voting is on the verge of being blocked in Kramatorsk, Krasny Lyman (village of Yampilsky), Snizhne, and in the districts of Amvrosiyivka (village of Voikivske) and Kostyantynivka (Novopoltavka, Ivanopillya and Predtechyne village councils),” the administration said.
“The situation in Donetsk, Horlivka, Dzerzhynsk, Kostyantynivka, Kramatorsk, Krasny Lyman, Mariupol, Snizne and Sloviansk, and in the districts of Oleksandrivsk, Velyka Novosilka, Dobropillya, Krasnoarmiysk, and Sloviansk remains tense,” it said.
