Odessa police free 67 detainees in deadly clashes

(Xinhua/Agencies) Updated: 2014-05-05 15:05

People gather near flowers, lit candles and black and orange ribbons of St. George, a symbol widely associated with pro-Russian protests in Ukraine, placed in memory of people killed in recent street battles between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian supporters near the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow, May 4, 2014.[Photo/Agencies]

Odessa saw a standoff Saturday that culminated in pro-Russian insurgents setting buses alight to ward off attacks. Russian state television has reported 10 deaths, including two among government forces, during clashes in Kramatorsk so far. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.

By midday Sunday, however, there was little sign of movement, from either government or insurgents on the ground. The burned-out shells of trolleybuses and a minibus lay in the road untouched.

At least 12 government armored personnel carriers were spotted driving through the town Saturday, although they appeared to have returned to their base at a military airfield on the edge of the city by day's end.

Opposing sides of the Ukraine conflict have traded bitter recriminations over the mass deaths that followed hours of bloody rioting on Friday in Odessa.

The clash began with street fighting in which at least three people were reported killed by gunfire, then turned into a grisly conflagration when government opponents took refuge in a trade union building that caught fire as opposing sides hurled Molotov cocktails at one another.

The city's police chief, Petr Lutsyuk, on Saturday issued a statement calling for calm in the city of about 1 million, but hours later he was fired by the interior minister.