Celebrations Swing While War Rages in Eastern Ukraine

By Harriet Salem in Sloviansk and Henry Langston in Mariupol

The streets of pro-Russia rebel-held Sloviansk were in full party mode for Victory Day, the annual celebration of the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany in 1945. Soviet-era war songs blared through loudspeakers, elderly women danced joyously, and self-appointed people's mayor, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, accompanied by two camouflage-clad militia commanders, fired gunshots into the air. Gold-toothed Ponomarev even ditched his usual tracksuit top for a suit in honor of the special day.

But as Sloviansk celebrated, Mariupol, an industrial port city just 150 miles south, was in the chaos of war. At least seven people died today in fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia protesters, according to the Associated Press.

APCs charged down the streets and gunfire rattled though the air as the Ukrainian army, now in an "active" stage of its counter-terrorism operation against the pro-Russia rebels, launched its assault. The fighting left the city's police station a charred wreck, riddled with holes from live ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades.

Nearby, tire barricades smoldered outside the city administration building, which has changed hands between the rebels and Ukrainian army multiple times in the last two weeks.

At first hesitant in its response to the pro-Russia militia, who have seized large parts of the country's east, the government in Kiev is now showing an increased willingness to use heavy-handed aggression against the rebels.

"We will shoot to kill anyone who opens fire, without warning or hesitation," said Ukraine's Interior Ministry in a statement issued yesterday.

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But it is unclear whether those shot at today by Ukrainian soldiers were armed or not. Video footage of the assault appeared to show men in civilian clothes without weapons running through the streets under gunfire, some with their hands in the air. VICE News found no evidence of armed militia in the city on Friday evening.

The blurred lines between the pro-Russia militia gunmen and their unarmed civilian supporters, who often appear side-by-side manning barricades and occupied buildings has presented a serious dilemma for those leading the military assault against the rebels across the region.

One of the leaders of pro-Russia separatists in southeast Ukraine attended Victory Day celebrations in Donetsk on May 9. Footage shows Denis Pushilin arriving, flanked by several other men. Video via YouTube/Christopher Miller.

The southeast, including Mariupol, and the northeast Kharkiv Oblast, both of which lie on the edge of the rebel-controlled areas, have been declared by the Kiev government as strategically important zones.

Just two days ago the Ukrainian army clashed with rebels on a highway on the outskirts of Mariupol after rebels ambushed a bus of soldiers heading towards the city. The shootout reportedly left two dead and several wounded.

Russia held huge military parades across the country and in Crimea on May 9 on Victory Day, the day on which the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II is commemorated.

The chain of events which led up to today's assault are unclear, but locals told VICE News that police officers had called the National Guard — a new armed force created on March 12th — after some of their colleagues had defected to the rebels side.

Drastically understaffed and under-resourced Ukraine's army has undergone a recruitment drive, of which the National Guard is just one manifestation. But many of those signing up to fight for the country have strong nationalist sentiments. Ilya, a football ultra from Donetsk aligned with the far-right, told VICE News that hundreds of the hooligans were signing up to army.

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"National Guard are just Right Sector (a far-right Ukrainian nationalist group) in uniforms here to kill police loyal to the people," one man in the angry crowd that had gathered to survey the damage in Mariupol told VICE News.

The violence, which is simmering across the region, has fuelled support for the rebels. Over the last week more than 50 people have reportedly died.

Gunfire was reported in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on May 9. RT reported that a producer for its Ruptly service was shot in the stomach in the city. Footage from Mariupol shows a man lying motionless in a pool of blood, and others with wounds.

More than 40 people were killed in Odessa on May 2 when pro-Russia activists clashed with pro-Ukrainian demonstrators. Most of victims died after being trapped in a building that caught fire. Dozens more have died in clashes with the Ukrainian army on the outskirts of rebel-held Sloviansk, the epicenter of Kiev's anti-terrorism operation.

"See what this fascist government do in Mariupol," said Sasha, a local self-defense guard manning a barricade at the edge of Sloviansk. "They are killing peaceful people everywhere, they are trying to crush the east." Sasha’s rebel checkpoint is now less than two miles from the Ukrainian army.

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Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin — the man who Kiev and its western allies accuse of orchestrating the chaos in Ukraine's east — attended a Victory Day parade in Crimea, the southern peninsula annexed by Russia in March. The Night Wolves motorbike gang, Russian Cossacks, and self-defense militia were among those marching at the rally where thousands of locals came out to greet Putin as their "savior."

Moscow's rhetoric towards Ukraine has softened considerably recently. Just two days ago, Putin called on the rebels to postpone the referendum on independence scheduled to be held in the pro-Russia held areas on May 11. The Russian president also pledged to withdraw his 40,000 troops performing "military exercises" on Ukraine's eastern border. But once bitten, twice shy. Many officials fear that Putin is simply performing another sleight of hand in a protracted game of cat-and-mouse where Russia has consistently stayed two steps ahead of the west.

By playing peacemaker at a diplomatic level Putin has gracefully passed the buck to the government in Kiev, which now stands accused of shooting down its own, unarmed, people.

Follow Harriet Salem on Twitter: @HarrietSalem