Ukrainian forces claim major victory by taking back rebel-held city

President Petro Poroshenko said in a statement that government troops took Slovyansk, a city of about 100,000 that has been a centre of the fighting between Kiev's troops and the pro-Russian insurgents. Mr Poroshenko ordered the armed forces to raise the Ukrainian flag over the city, which has been under control of the rebels since early April when they seized the city's administrative and police buildings.Slovyansk has been the strongest gain during the conflict with government forces in eastern Ukraine. But its re-capture is Kiev's most notable military victory in three months of fighting in which more than 200 Ukrainian troops have been killed as well as hundreds of civilians and rebels.Mr Poroshenko's website said separatist fighters had come under mortar fire as they tried to break through government forces' lines. The separatists had lost one tank and other armoured vehicles, a statement said.'The president gave the order ... for the state flag to be raised on Slovyansk's town council offices', it added, referring to one of the city's main rebel headquarters.However, Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defence Council, said mopping-up operations were continuing.'Slovyansk is under siege. Now an operation is going on to neutralise small groups hiding in buildings where peaceful citizens are living,' Mr Lysenko told journalists.Andrei Purgin, of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, added that rebels were evacuating, but claimed the army's campaign had left the city 'in ruins'.Mr Purgin also said 150 fighters injured in Slovyansk were in Donetsk for treatment.'More than a hundred militiamen have been killed in the last three days,' said Viktor, a 35-year-old Slovyansk native who had a shrapnel wound in his leg. 'The mood is very bad. It seems that we've lost this war. And Russia isn't in a hurry to help.' A rebel commander said that rebels had relocated to the nearby town of Kramatorsk, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Slovyansk. But outside Kramatorsk, an abandoned checkpoint and several hundred rebels, armed and in uniform, were spotted driving in minibuses in the direction of Donetsk.But some rebels played down the significance of Ukraine's advances with Pavel Gubarev, the self-described governor of the Donetsk People's Republic, writing online that the rebels had staged a tactical retreat.'Kutuzov also retreated, as that was the plan,' he wrote, referring to the 19th century general Mikhail Kutuzov who is credited with defeating Napoleon's forces in Russia. 'In general, Russians only retreat before a decisively victorious battle.' However, others in the rebels' ranks pleaded publicly with Russia to assist the rebels in their cause. In a video posted online late yesterday, Igor Girkin, the self-described commander in chief of the Donetsk People's Republic, said his men had 'lost the will to fight'.'They want to live in Russia," said Mr Girkin, also known by his nom de guerre, Igor Strelkov. 'But when they tried to assert this right, Russia doesn't want to help.'(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az