Pro-Russian Separatists Capture Luhansk

Pro-Russian Separatists Capture Luhansk

Kiev’s control over a growing number of eastern cities and regions is steadily decreasing as pro-Russian separatists have captured the regional government building of Luhansk after getting into a one sided fight with local police forces.

Tensions with local police forces escalated and culminated in a one sided gun fight. Ukrainian officials said police forces did not retaliate and no casualties were reported. Earlier this Tuesday, pro-Russian forces managed to take over the headquarters of the Luhansk regional government making it the second regional government building to fall this April after Donetsk.

Things didn’t stop there with the regional prosecutor’s office and television center being the other important objectives captured by the Moscow coordinated forces. Separatists opened fire soon after on the local police station demanding that police officers surrender their weapons leading to a tense stand-off.

The central government in Kiev has almost completely lost control over police forces located in the eastern region of the country as Russian separatists meet little to no opposition.

Acting Ukrainian president Oleksander Turchynov demanded that the police chiefs in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions be dismissed after failing to protect their own citizens. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said police captains have little control over police forces in the region.

Ukraine launched a counter-terrorism move earlier this month in order to oust the pro-Russian forces, however, the move has yet to bring the desired results.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday April 30 2014, 3:13 AM EST. Ref: reuters. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0