Pro-Russian rebels shot down a Ukrainian helicopter in fierce fighting near the eastern town of Slaviansk on May 5, and Kiev drafted police special forces to the southwestern port city of Odessa to halt a feared westward spread of rebellion. Ukraine said the Odessa force, based on "civil activists", would replace local police who had failed to tackle rebel actions at the weekend. Its dispatch was a clear signal from Kyiv that, while tackling rebellion in the east, it would vigorously resist any sign of a slide to a broader civil war.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
Reuters: Ukraine moves special forces to Odessa, helicopter downed in east
Ukrainian soldiers stand at a checkpoint they seized in the early morning in the village of Andreevka, 7 km from the center of the southern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, on May 2, 2014. Ukraine's military lost two helicopters and two servicemen on May 2.
