You're reading: Fourth pro-Russian roadblock cleared near Sloviansk

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) reports that a fourth illegal roadblock manned by Kremlin-backed militants has been eliminated in the span of two days along a road that leads into the hostile and restive city of Sloviansk in northern Donetsk Oblast. 

The latest pro-Russian roadblock to be cleared is
on the Izium-Sloviansk route, the SBU’s Counterterrorism Center states.

“Specially-designated forces of the Interior Ministry and
SBU continue to conduct investigative operations, the positions of armed
extremists have been fixated,” reads an April 25 SBU update of the
multi-government task force operation.

Counterterrorist forces earlier on April 24 cleared three
additional illegal roadblocks manned by pro-Russian militants situated on roads
that lead into Sloviansk.

On April 25, Kyiv announced that it is scaling up operations near Sloviansk to “blockade” the city. 

The city of 120,000 is considered to be the most hostile and Russia-infiltrated city in Donetsk Oblast. The Moscow-backed forces allegedly include elements
of Russian mercenaries, professional soldiers, and military intelligence
officers and their paid agents and subversives.

Officials in Moscow have repeatedly and vigorously denied involvement in the unrest in
eastern Ukraine.

Alleged pro-Russian subversives first openly appeared in Sloviansk on the morning of April 13, when armed, camouflaged men, used swift, tactical
coordination to seize the local police station
. Soon after, numerous other
Ukrainian government buildings were taken over in the city, including the SBU and city
council buildings.

That morning on Palm Sunday, Moscow-backed forces ambushed an
SBU counterterrorist team from Poltava on the outskirts of Sloviansk near an
illegal roadblock they had set up. An SBU captain was killed at the hands of
the Kremlin-backed forces that also left three others wounded, including an SBU
colonel and lieutenant-colonel.

Ukraine Security Service first deputy head Vasyl Krutov.

Afterward deputy SBU chief Vasyl Krutov was appointed head
of the anti-terrorist operation. The 64-year-old SBU officer on
April 25 said
that the counterterrorist team mostly operates in hostile
territory because it lacks public support in Sloviansk, and other areas of
Donetsk Oblast.

Kyiv Post editor Mark
Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].