Ukraine army pushes into rebel stronghold of Luhansk

Government says state flag raised over police station in separatist-held city, as foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany meet in Berlin to discuss crisis

By Tom Parfitt, Moscow, Daily Telegraph
7:04PM BST 17 Aug 2014

The Ukrainian army pushed into a key city controlled by Russia-backed separatists on Sunday, the government said, as the two countries' foreign ministers met in Berlin for crisis talks.

Kiev also admitted the rebels had shot down one if its fighter aircraft, while accusing the separatists of bringing three missile launchers onto Ukrainian territory from Russia.

Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said government forces had advanced into the Zhovtneviy neighbourhood in the northeast of the besieged city of Luhansk and taken control of the neighbourhood police station.

"They raised the state flag over it," he told a news briefing.

Luhansk, with a peacetime population of 420,000, is the second largest stronghold being defended by the rebels in eastern Ukraine, whose main bastion is the city of Donetsk, 90 miles to the west.

(More here.)