Ukraine Crisis: Government Forces Gain in Slovyansk, Separatists Stage Takeover in Odessa

BALTIMORE, Maryland May 5, 2014 - Even as Ukraine's Military has made obvious progress in fighting with Separatists in Slovyansk in Eastern Ukraine, Separatists have stormed a police building in Odessa and freed up to 70 inmates who are said to be Separatists. Germany, meanwhile, has let it be known that a referendum being planned for next week by Separatists in Donetsk would be a direct violation of the Ukrainian Constitution and would greatly exacerbate the current crisis. Reuters said on Monday that Chancellor Angela Merkle conveyed that message to Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin over the weekend.

The BBC said the Ukraine Army had retaken a television and radio tower inside Slovyansk's city limits, taking off the air the Russian programming the Separatists had been playing. The Ukraine Army had forced the Separatists to fall back in other areas, and whereas the fighting was on the outskirts of the City before, it is now nearer to the downtown. It is not without it costs to the Ukraine army, however. At least eight soldiers were wounded in an ambush, according to Arsen Avakov, the acting Interior Minister told the media. Other reports said that one or more Ukraine Army Soldiers had been killed. According to Reuters, Separatist Forces were retreating on foot and in armored vehicles.

But in Odessa, where up to 42 people died early in the weekend in Separatist Demonstrations and fighting with police, a Separatist Mob stormed a police building where Separatist prisoners were being held, and the BBC said up to 70 of the prisoners had been freed. Tensions in Odessa were very high, the BBC reported. The Chicago Tribune reports within the last hour that Avakov has dispatched a special forces unit to Odessa to help control Separatist forces, and in making the announcement, he blasted the police in Odessa for incompetence. Odessa is not in Eastern Ukraine, but in the southwestern portion of the country, on the Black Sea. Until fighting broke out there late last week, it had been confined to Eastern Ukraine, near the Russian frontier. Russian military units are still massed on that border, in full readiness to move should the order be given by Russian Strong Man Vladimir Putin.

In Germany, at a news conference, a government spokesperson told reporters that"Such a referendum, [planned for May 11] against the Ukrainian constitution, does not calm things down but escalates them," The spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said at a news conference, adding that the people who had called the vote had no democratic legitimacy.