30,000 Jews prepare to flee Odessa over fears of massacres as Ukrainian troops move in on pro-Russian militants

Deaths reported during 'security sweep' by pro-Kiev troops in Slovyansk after armed pro-Moscow separatists occupy city of 125,000

Ukrainian helicopter gunship brought down by machine gun fire over city, according to Kiev defence ministry



Pro-Putin militants with armoured personnel carriers have set up check-points on outskirts of city

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City saw appalling massacres by Nazis in World War II and was also scene of pogroms in Tsarist Russia



Kremlin says Kiev 'must stop the bloodshed' as it steps up rhetoric over troubled country








Gunbattles were reported and at least one death confirmed in a city in eastern Ukraine as Kiev sent troops in to tackle pro-Russian militants amid mounting tension in the country.

Slovyansk is now the focus of the armed anti-government insurgency, which Kiev claims is being organised by the Kremlin, a claim denied by Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

The city of 125,000 people had been ringed with checkpoints manned by the pro-Russian forces, some of them in armoured personnel carriers but today Ukrainian forces moved in, fighting pitched gunbattles.

A spokesman with the pro-Russia militia in Slovyansk said people were being killed and wounded in the fighting, but offered no specific figures.

The Interfax news agency cited Interior Minister Arsen Avakov as saying that pro-Russia forces were deploying large-calibre weapons and mortars.



Checkpoints held by pro-Russian militants outside Slovyanska today. They have commandeered armoured personnel carriers and other military equipment, including heavy machine guns, one of which is carried by the man in th esidecar of a motorcycle (right)

Funerals were also held in Ukraine for casualties of earlier violence, including 21-year-old nurse Yulia Izotova. She was buried in a large public ceremony in Kramatorsk. Witnesses say Izotova was killed by shots from a Ukrainian military column on the road from Slovyansk to Kramatorsk last week.

An injured pro-Russian armed man is helped by civilians near the town of Sllovyansk. Gun battles were reported around the city after clashes between pro-Moscow separatists and Ukrainian security forces. There were conflicting accounts of how the clashes began but at least one death was reported and several other injuries.

Associated Press reporters heard gunfire and multiple explosions in and around Slovyansk, a city of 125,000 people that has become the focus of the armed insurgency against the new interim government in Kiev.



Amid the violence, a Ukrainian military helicopter was shot down near the pro-Russian rebel-controlled eastern town of Slaviansk on Monday, but the pilots survived, the Defence Ministry said.

The helicopter, an Mi-24, which came under fire from a heavy machine gun, crashed into a river. The ministry said in a statement the crew were evacuated to a nearby camp but did not give any detail of their condition.

At least three other helicopters have been shot down by pro-Russian rebels since uprisings began in eastern parts of the country early this year.



Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his agency's website that pro-Russia forces were deploying large-calibre weapons and mortars in the region and there were injured on both sides. Government troops were facing about 800 insurgents, he said.



A pro-Russia militia spokesman in Slovyansk said an unspecified number of people had been killed and wounded in the clashes, including a 20-year-old woman killed by a stray bullet. Both sides indicated fighting was taking place at several sites around the city.



An Associated Press crew saw at least four ambulances rushing injured people to a city hospital. At least one militiaman was seen being carried in for medical treatment.







A medical worker holds an assault rifle as a wounded pro-Russian fighter exits a car at a hospital in the Ukranian city of Slovyansk. Four Ukrainian troops were killed and 30 wounded in intense fighting around the rebel-held town, the interior ministry said. The ministry claimed that the pro-Russian gunmen controlling the town were using civilians as human shields and were shooting from houses, some of which were on fire. It said there were civilian casualties but did not provide a toll.

Ukrainian soldiers guard near their checkpoint not far of Slovyansk. At least five pro-Russian activists were reported badly injured in fighting in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, a rebel representative told the Interfax news agency.

Ukraine is facing its worst crisis in decades as the polarized nation of 46 million tries to decide whether to look toward Europe, as its western regions want to do, or improve ties with Russia, which is favored by the many Russian-speakers in the east.



In the last few weeks, anti-government forces have stormed and seized government buildings and police stations in a dozen eastern Ukrainian cities. Authorities in Kiev - who blame Russia for backing the insurgents - have up to now been largely powerless to react.

And since Russia has kept tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's eastern border - and annexed its key Black Sea peninsula of Crimea last month - Ukraine's central government fears Russia could try to invade and grab more territory.



Since the government began trying to take back the buildings late last week, Slovyansk has been under a tight security cordon. Movement in and out of the city has ground almost to a halt, causing shortages in basic supplies. Lines have been seen at grocery stores.



The goals of the insurgency are ostensibly geared toward pushing for broader powers of autonomy for the region, but some insurgents do favor separatism and the annexation of Crimea looms over the entire political and military discussion.



Russia, which the international community has accused of promoting the unrest, has vociferously condemned Ukraine's recent security operations in the east.

It comes after tension in Odessa, where pro-Russian activists holed up in a trade union building died when it went on fire. A series of other activists were imprisoned in the aftermath of the fire.



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