Ukrainian troops fought pitched gun battles May 5 with pro-Russian militias occupying Sloviansk, and the government sent an elite national guard unit to the southern port city of Odessa as Kyiv scrambled to bring much of the country back under the capital’s control. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said four officers have been killed and another 30 soldiers injured in the fighting. Gunfire and multiple explosions were heard in and around Sloviansk, a city of 125,000 people that has become the focus of the armed insurgency against the new interim government in Kyiv.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
Al Jazeera America: Ukrainian troops battle pro-Russian separatists in Slovyansk
A Ukrainian officers stands guard at a checkpoint as locals look on.
