NOVOLUHANSKE, Ukraine – The way Ukrainian commander Vyacheslav “Eagle-Owl” Vlasenko described it, his troops snuck into this rustic town of 4,000 people in broad daylight and took it – and a valuable pig farm – without firing a shot.
Concealed in trucks that looked like those used by the pig farm, the troops’ advance into Nuvoluhanske – which had been part of the gray zone, a ravaged no-man’s land between the warring sides – took their Russia-backed separatist foes by surprise.
