KIEV, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian law enforcement officials say they lost eight more people in the battle for Ilovaisk, Donetsk Region, among them a Ukrainian citizen of US origin.
Four people from the National Guard’s Donbas Battalion and four more from the special police battalion Shakhtersk were killed, Ukraine's interior minister adviser Anton Gerashchenko said on Facebook on Wednesday.
"Among those of the Donbas battalion, there was a Ukrainian citizen of US origin,” Anton Gerashchenko said.
The official also claims that the Donbas Battalion controls half of the city, which is divided by a railroad. The other part of the city is under the control of independence supporters.
A Donetsk People’s Republic representative stated that the Ukrainian battalions Azov, Donbas and others tried to break into the city from the side of the train station and surround the militia, but failed to do so and "dug in on the outskirts."
The Donbas Batallion reported earlier on its website that their troops came out of the fight near Ilovaisk, and that their commanding officer Semyon Semchenko had been wounded Tuesday morning. The militia forces claim that Kiev has also sent to Ilovaisk a separate company from the Dnepr-1 Battalion, a Right Sector unit, as well as a couple of squadrons of the 51th Mechanized Brigade on armored vehicles.
Ukrainian troops are trying to occupy Ilovaisk for the second week already. The town lies 35 kilometers (21 miles) east of Donetsk, and its capture would allow Kiev to take the regional center and reach the eastern borders of the Donetsk-Makeevka urban agglomeration.
The militia previously stated that they had repelled an attack by Ukrainian security forces on Ilovaisk. At the same time, Ukrainian troops claimed that they were able to reach the center of the town and hoist the Ukrainian flag over the City Council.
Since mid-April, Ukrainian authorities have been conducting a military operation in the southeastern regions of Ukraine that refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new government following a February coup.
