Tycoon: Don't bomb Donetsk

Rebels vow to make a stand; Kiev says it will act quickly to recover territory

Ukraine's richest man pleaded with the government on Monday not to bomb Donetsk, a city of a million people where hundreds of heavily armed rebels have vowed to make a stand after losing control of their bastion in the town of Sloviansk.

Kiev has said it will act quickly to recover more territory from rebels after re-taking in what President Petro Poroshenko called a turning point in the three-month conflict against rebels in the east.

Rebels retreating from, some driving armored vehicles flying Russian flags, poured into Donetsk, 110 km to the north over the weekend. About 1,000 of them held a rally in the central square on Sunday.

Their commander, a Muscovite using the name Igor Strelkov, said his men would fight for the city, which was "much easier to defend than little ".

Businesses have closed down, and thousands of residents are believed to have fled Donetsk.

The city is the headquarters for Rinat Akhmetov, by far Ukraine's wealthiest man, whose fortune from coal and steel is estimated at more than $11 billion by Forbes. He said government forces should show restraint in Donetsk and the surrounding Donbass region.

"Donetsk must not be bombed. Donbass must not be bombed. Cities, towns and infrastructure must not be destroyed," he said. "We must avoid suffering and deaths of peaceful people."

The government said it carried out an airstrike against rebel fighters who had attacked the airport in Luhansk, another eastern city, on Sunday. It accused separatists in the area of opening fire in populated areas under the guise of being government forces.

"They use flags of military paratroopers, Ukrainian state flags and thus fool the population," military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said on Monday.

The Defense Ministry said early on Monday that separatists had launched 10 attacks on government posts and army positions in the previous 24 hours with mortars and small arms. It gave no details of the incidents or casualties, but said troops had returned fire.

"The terrorists were given a fitting reply", it said.

Political upheaval

Separatist rebellions erupted in mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions of Ukraine in April after Moscow annexed Crimea in March following the overthrow of a pro-Russian president in Kiev in February.

Rebels have been barricaded in government buildings in Donetsk, which they declared capital of an independent "people's republic", but, with 120,000 people, was the town where they exercised the most control.

Strelkov, the self-styled rebel defense minister whose real name is Igor Girkin, said 80-90 percent of his men had escaped from and were organizing an active defense of Donetsk.

Recapturing has given Kiev by far its clearest victory after months of patchy performance against the heavily armed fighters.

Poroshenko ordered the assault on after abandoning a cease-fire last week, arguing that the rebels had refused to abide by the truce.

He said the victory in marked a turning point in the conflict, though he cautioned that rebels would now regroup, and that "further tests" lay ahead.

In, around 200 residents lined up in the city's central square on Sunday for meat, potatoes, onions and bread distributed by troops.

"Everything is different now. Tonight is the first night with no shelling," said Mikhail Martynenko, 58, a guard at a local market near Sloviansk. "People are in a better mood and there are more people on the streets. Everyone was afraid. They had no idea when another mortar would come flying."

(China Daily 07/08/2014 page12)