Slavyansk: Pravda.Ru contacts eyewitnesses of battles

Pravda.Ru contacted an eyewitness of the current events in Ukraine's Slavyansk. The man, who wished to be introduced only as Aleksey, told us the following on the phone:

Photo: AP photo

"I'm at a roadblock near the fodder plant from the side of the the village of Krestische. There are no battles here, only car tires are burning. Early in the morning, one was wounded and one was killed in Krestische, but this has not been confirmed, as we were not there n the site. We came to the roadblock, we were told that there are battles going on, but there are no battles here.

"Two armored vehicles came to the roadblock, the Ukrainian military men intimidated the locals, committed acts of looting, took food products from people - the troops don't receive any food - and then they drove away. The locals set car tires burning and left."

Alexei referred to channel Artem77 on the website Ustream, where he and his followers upload videos from the scene. The videos on the channel are updated regularly, but the channel appears to be blocked every now and then.

Pravda.Ru also spoke to a resident of another town of the Donetsk region - Artyomovsk, where violent clashes between the troops and protesters occurred as well.

"According to the information that I have, there was a provocation in Artyomovsk. Some people allegedly attacked a military unit, the unit called the Ukrainian army for help, helicopters came flying and they repulsed the attackers. They said there were 50-70 attackers, and they disappeared in an unknown direction.

"Our mayor does not support the People's Republic of Donetsk - he supports the Kiev junta. We have information that all is happening here on his orders. No one has been killed, one was wounded from the military unit. There was the sound of automatic fire, grenades were thrown, but now it's all quiet."