Easter Sunday gun battle at eastern Ukraine check-point leaves 3 pro-Russians and 2 Ukrainians dead in bloodiest clash so far



Russian media reports casualties in strife-hit Slaviansk in restive eastern part of nation



Three pro-Russian separatists and two 'attackers' killed, Russian state media reported



Russia claims Ukraine is failing to rein in armed far right extremists

Pictures show two corpses on a truck and burned out vehicles at site of attack




Ukraine's police and intelligence service accused Russia of staging a fatal shooting incident on Sunday in which pro-Moscow separatists were killed in the east of the country.

'Armed lawbreakers and saboteurs who are terrorising the local population around Slaviansk... have turned to cynical provocation,' the SBU security service said in a statement, describing the incident as a 'staged attack'.

No group was present 'other than the saboteurs and crime figures, supported and armed by officers of Russia's GRU' military intelligence, the SBU added.

The Ukrainian nationalist group Right Sector, blamed by separatists for the shooting, denied involvement and also accused Russian special forces.

Russia has accused Ukraine of failing to protect civilians in the Russian-speaking east and has threatened to intervene on their behalf - as it did before annexing Crimea last month.



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The gun battle was evidence that Ukraine is not reining in gun-wielding far right extremists, Russia claimed

An armed militant stands guards near a truck carrying the bodies of dead pro-Russian separatists as Ukrainian police experts examine them at a check-point outside the eastern Ukrainian city of Slaviansk, today

Andrey, a Ukrainian citizen, rests in a hospital bed after being wounded by an unidentified armed man in the pro-Russian separatist-held city of Slaviansk today. Five people were reported killed today in a gun battle in restive eastern Ukraine, shattering a fragile Easter truce in the crisis-hit former Soviet republic

The Ukrainian Interior Ministry noted that its police were unable to operate in Slaviansk since pro-Moscow gunmen took over the town earlier this month.

But in a statement it said it had established that at least three men were killed in what it suspected might have been an incident set up by Russian agents.

Separatists manning a checkpoint on a road into Slaviansk near the town of Bylbasovka returned fire, it said, after gunmen in four cars drove up and shot at them at 2:20am.

Three separatists were killed, two locals and a third as yet unidentified. Three were wounded. About a dozen attackers took off in two cars, carrying an unknown number of dead and wounded.

The Interior Ministry said none of its forces had mounted an operation overnight around Slaviansk, which it described as 'the most dangerous place in Ukraine, in view of the presence in the town of foreign saboteurs and illegal armed groups'.



'At the same time,' it added, 'One cannot but suspect the speed with which camera crews from Russian TV stations appeared at the scene of the shooting, and the obviously staged subject matter of news reports in the Russian media.'

It noted that the news was broken by media run by Dmitry Kiselyov, a journalist who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin and who, the ministry noted, is the subject of visa bans imposed by the United States and EU as part of sanctions aimed at punishing Russia for annexing Crimea.

In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said an unspecified number of innocent civilians were killed in the attack by armed men from 'Right Sector,' a far-right nationalist group which figured prominently in the overthrow of Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February.

'Russia is indignant about this provocation by gunmen, which testifies to the lack of will on the part of the Kiev authorities to rein in and disarm nationalists and extremists,' the statement said.

It said it was a source of surprise that the incident had happened after Russia, the European Union, the United States and Ukraine signed an April 17 accord in Geneva calling on people to desist from using violence or intimidation.

Local leader Vyatcheslav Ponomarev shows ammunition found after a gun battle at a checkpoint in the pro-Russian separatist-held town of Slaviansk

An armed pro-Russian militant stands guard at a check-point outside Slaviansk today. A photographer at the scene said there were two burned out jeeps at the barricaded makeshift checkpoint

Pro-Russian gunmen at the check point which is under the control of pro-Russian activists in the village of Bulbasika near Slaviansk

An armed pro-Russian militant looks for ammunition casings from the gun battle

The attack shows that the Ukrainian authorities are failing to rein in armed extremists, Russia's foreign ministry said today

Two Reuters journalists at the scene saw two dead bodies, one of them with gunshot wounds in the head and face. One man wore combat fatigues and the other was in civilian clothes. Their bodies were lying in a truck, one of them covered with a blanket.

A photographer at the scene said there were two burned out 4x4s at the barricaded makeshift checkpoint which was near a group of houses about 11 miles west of the city.



Local people were laying flowers at the scene and touching the bodies in a gesture of farewell.

Overthrow: An armed man in military fatigues stands guard at a barricade outside the regional administration building in Slaviansk

An armed man in military fatigues stands guard at a barricade outside the regional administration building in Slaviansk

An armed man in military fatigues stands guard at a barricade outside the regional administration building in Slaviansk

'Russia insists on the strict implementation by Ukraine of the commitments it took upon itself to de-escalate the situation in the south-east of Ukraine,' the ministry's statement said.



The self-declared mayor of Slaviansk, who supports the pro-Russian separatists in the city, said there had been a clash overnight and there were casualties, a Reuters Television team in Slaviansk said.

Yesterday the United States said it is considering deploying about 150 soldiers for military exercises to begin in Poland and Estonia in the next few weeks.

The exercises would follow Russia's buildup of forces near its border with Ukraine and its annexation last month of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Five people were killed in a gun battle in the easter Ukrainian city of Slaviansk, it has been reported. Pictured, a young soldier in front of an occupied building in Slaviansk.

Armed men, wearing black and orange ribbons of St. George - a symbol widely associated with pro-Russian protests in Ukraine, drive an armoured personnel carrier in Slaviansk on Friday

One of the Ukrainian army tanks now in the possession of the armed pro- Russian militia

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said earlier this week that the U.S. is looking for ways to reassure its NATO allies of its strong commitment to collective defense.

The breakthrough peace agreement is being ignored as armed pro-Russian separatists repeatedly refused to recognise its terms.

The separatist leaders ridiculed the deal, which was brokered by the US, Russia, Ukraine and the European Union in Geneva.

Branding Ukraine’s Western-backed interim government ‘illegal’, they insisted that they would not comply with its terms unless they were granted further concessions and guarantees.

Stark contrast: Ukrainian Orthodox believers light candles during a Orthodox Easter service in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra church in the capital city of Kiev

Life goes on: Families visit Easter egg displays in the Orthodox church garden grounds of Saint Sophia Cathedral in central Kiev

Ukrainian Orthodox believers light candles with fire which was delivered to the Ukrainian capital from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City, traditionally believed to be the burial place of Jesus Christ

They also announced that their forces would continue their occupation of state buildings in at least ten eastern cities and towns – but could seize even more.

A security service officer was killed in Slaviansk six days ago, where the police station and the security service office were seized a day earlier by camouflaged armed men.