You're reading: Weekend clashes leave at least one dead as Kremlin-backed separatists go on offensive (VIDEO)

Over the weekend, one Kremlin-backed separatist was killed, one wounded and an unspecified number were taken prisoner, including two Russian journalists, in clashes near Izium, Kharkiv Oblast, and Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian authorities say.

Starting on May 17 and up to the morning of May 19, according to the interior and defense ministries, Moscow-backed separatists attacked five Ukraine-held checkpoints near Sloviansk. They also targeted the Kramatorsk airfield and an encampment near the counterterrorism headquarters in Izium, Kharkiv Oblast.

Using a grenade launcher from a day care center, “terrorists” this morning shot a checkpoint near Sloviansk, killing airborne brigade trooper Hannadiy Belyak, wounding another, with two additional troops receiving concussions, reported the Defense Ministry.

Four additional Ukrainian checkpoints near Sloviansk were attacked on the night of May 18, according to the Defense Ministry, leaving one soldier lightly and another moderately wounded. One pro-Russian rebel and another was wounded in the attacks, said Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. The wounded rebel is in custody.

Daily and nightly attacks on Ukrainian positions by pro-Russian rebels have become a routine occurrence, added Avakov. “We are growing accustomed to dry-line summaries: Assaults, attacks, deaths, checkpoints…,” the acting interior minister said in a May 18 Facebook post.

Moscow-backed rebels used under-barrel grenade launchers, rifles and sniper weapons to attack a camp near the counterterrorism headquarters in Izium, Kharkiv Oblast, the Defense Ministry said on May 18. Two National Guard troops were injured in the attack.

The Kramatorsk airfield was also a pro-Russian target on May 17-18. Ukrainian forces destroyed an automatic grenade launcher on the first day while repelling an “armed terrorist attack,” said the Defense Ministry. The next day, Ukrainian forces foiled a plan to shoot at the airfield with portable air-defense systems. The pro-Russian rebels were disarmed, with an unspecified number taken prisoner, including two Russian journalists.

The Defense Ministry said that the portable air-defense systems “are not owned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” in a May 18 statement.

Heavy fighting, killing at least one Kremlin-backed separatist, was reported over the weekend in Donetsk Oblast.

Also on May 18 Russian-backed insurgents took over the Luhansk regional police headquarters. In a statement the same day, the Interior Ministry said the regional police headquarters moved to the city of Starobilsk.

The statement said that a group of “armed men approached the police headquarter behind a human shield of women and children.”

A decision was made to move the police headquarters “in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, bloodshed and riots,” according to the Interior Ministry.

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