Ukrainian forces reclaim port city from pro-Russian rebels

The Ukrainian flag fluttered over the regional headquarters of Mariupol on Friday after government forces reclaimed the port city from pro-Russian separatists in heavy fighting and said they had regained control of a long stretch of the border with Russia.

The advances are significant victories for the pro-European leadership in a military operation to crush the armed rebellion, which began in east Ukraine in April, and hold the former Soviet republic of 45 million together.

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MARIUPOL: CITY HAS CHANGED HANDS SEVERAL TIMES

“At 10:34 a.m.the Ukrainian flag was raised over City Hall in Mariupol,” Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook, less than six hours after the attack began on the city of 500,000, Ukraine’s biggest Azov Sea port.

A ministry aide said the government forces stormed the rebels after they were surrounded and given 10 minutes to surrender. At least five separatists and two servicemen were killed in the battle before many of the rebels fled.

A group of around 100 Mariupol citizens, who had gathered in the town centre to show their opposition to the government’s actions, exchanged obscenities and crude gestures with Ukrainian soldiers, who were driving through town in a column of armored trucks. “The government brought everything here, including a cannon … people were not allowed to come and witness how the government was shooting its own citizens,” 52-year-old Andrei Nikodimovich said.

Mariupol, which has changed hands several times in weeks of conflict, is strategically important because it lies on major roads from the southeastern border with Russia into the rest of Ukraine and steel is exported through the port.

KYIV: UKRAINE SAYS IT’S OPEN TO GAS COMPROMISE

Moreover, Ukraine said on Friday it was ready to pay a compromise price of $326 per 1,000 cubic meters for Russian natural gas to avert the threat of Moscow cutting off supplies and allow time to reach a long-term pricing agreement.

Moscow demanded $485 per 1,000 cubic metres at the start of the negotiations – European customers last year paid Gazprom $387 per 1,000 cubic metres – before a discount of $100 per 1,000 cubic meters.

The sides have disagreed over how much Ukraine should pay for its gas, and Russian state gas exporter Gazprom has threatened to turn off the taps to Kyiv if it does not start paying billions of dollars in debts by Monday. This could disrupt supplies to the European Union as it gets about half its gas imports from Russia, half of them via Ukraine.

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