Ukrainian forces have launched an operation against pro-Russian separatists in their rebel stronghold of Slovyansk.<br /><br />Two Ukrainian helicopters have been shot down, with two pilots killed and another injured, according to the Defence Ministry in Kyiv.<br /><br />Russian TV showed pictures of a third pilot apparently injured and captured. <br /><br />The Ukrainian security service (SBU) says shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles have been used, proving that pro-Russian forces include foreign-trained specialists.<br /><br />One rebel among the group holding the captured pilot claimed the separatists had saved him. <br /><br />“He was abandoned by his colleagues, they took his pistol and ran away,” the man said.<br /><br />Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook that Slovyansk was surrounded. Pro-Russian separatists had set up barricades on the outskirts of the town.<br /><br />Within Slovyansk’s boundaries, the minister claimed all ten separatist checkpoints had been destroyed and several rebels captured.<br /><br />Russia has asked the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to intervene to stop what it calls the “raid of retaliation” in the east.<br /><br />Moscow had threatened catastrophic consequences should Ukraine move against the separatists, prompting fears it might send its troops across the border.
