By Lukas I. Alpert
MOSCOW--The Ukrainian government said Friday it regained control
of the separatist stronghold of Lysychansk after several days of
fierce fighting, a move it said would pave the way to take back a
string of other important rebel-held positions.
Kiev has reported steady progress in its fight against the
separatists. But its efforts have been hampered by what it says is
a flow of weapons and artillery fire from across the border that
hasn't stopped even after last week's downing of Malaysia Airlines
Flight 17--an allegation the U.S. backed on Thursday but that
Russia has repeatedly denied.
The Ukrainian military has made several key gains in the past
week, taking back 10 towns and nearly surrounding the vital
rebel-held cities of Luhansk and Donetsk, Ukraine's National
Security and Defense council said. On Friday, soldiers raised the
country's flag above Lysychansk after pushing out a powerful
militia headed by a top rebel commander, it said.
"The armed forces of Ukraine have been able to deal the rebels
powerful blows on several fronts," council spokesman Col. Andriy
Lysenko said.
A post on a social-media account associated with pro-Russian
rebel media leader Igor Girkin, who is best known by the norm de
guerre Igor Strelkov, confirmed that fighters with the "Ghost
Battalion" militia headed by leading insurgent Alexei Mozgovoi had
pulled back to the nearby city of Stakhanov and said they were
preparing for a counterattack. The message said rebel forces had
come under heavy shelling on the outskirts of Luhansk and Donetsk,
the regional capital, and that several civilians had been
killed.
Human Rights Watch issued a report late Thursday accusing the
Ukrainian government of killing at least 16 civilians and wounding
many more in four attacks on Donetsk between July 12 and July 21 by
firing unguided rockets into insurgent-controlled areas of the
city.
"Grad rockets are notoriously imprecise weapons that shouldn't
be used in populated areas," said Ole Solvang, senior emergencies
researcher at Human Rights Watch. "If insurgent and Ukrainian
government forces are serious about limiting harm to civilians,
they should both immediately stop using these weapons in populated
areas." Ukrainian officials and many residents of rebel-held towns
have accused the insurgents of firing mortars and artillery at
residential blocks to discredit Kiev forces.
Col. Lysenko said government forces would now focus on the rebel
base at Horlivka, which controls a major road leading into
Donetsk.
Despite the advances, government forces are continuing to meet
with stiff resistance, Col. Lysenko said, with several of its
positions coming under heavy mortar and rocket bombardment
overnight.
He said a government position at Marinivka, near the Russian
border, had been shelled twice in the early morning hours from the
Russian side of the frontier.
Ukraine has repeatedly said its forces have come under fire from
Russian territory. On Thursday, U.S. officials said they had
evidence that Russia has been firing artillery across the border at
Ukrainian positions. The U.S. and Kiev have also said Moscow
appears to have stepped up its efforts to arm the rebels, and has
been sending increasingly sophisticated weapons across the
border.
On Friday, Russia's foreign ministry called the U.S. claims
"unsubstantiated insinuations" and said Washington had offered no
evidence of shelling coming from Russia.
Other officials countered by accusing Ukraine of shelling
Russian territory. A spokesman for Russia's border security service
told Russian news agencies that 40 shells fired from Ukraine had
landed in Russian territory.
Col. Lysenko also said that Ukraine's border service had shot
down three unmanned surveillance drones that had appeared to have
come from the Russian side of the border.
The U.S. and European Union have moved to strengthen sanctions
against Russia for its alleged meddling and providing of the
advanced missile system Western officials believe was used by the
rebels to shoot down the Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur civilian
airliner.
On Friday, Russia's consumer safety regulator filed a lawsuit
Friday in Moscow court seeking to ban some of McDonald's Corp.'s
most popular burgers and shakes.
Russia has routinely moved to ban products in the past from
countries its has had tensions with, leading to charges it was
asserting economic pressure for political reasons, which Moscow
denies.
In a statement, the agency said a May probe at two McDonald's
restaurants in the western city of Veliky Novgorod uncovered traces
of E.coli in some Caesar wraps and salads. McDonald's said it
hasn't been approached by the agency over the issue and hasn't
received any notice of the claim.
The lawsuit comes only three months after McDonald's shut down
its restaurants in the breakaway region of Crimea following its
March annexation by Russia. President Vladimir Putin later said
Russia needs its own chain based on Russian cuisine.
Meanwhile, a Russian regional court on Friday ordered the
detention of a Ukrainian pilot being held on charges stemming from
the death of two Russian reporters be extended until late August.
Ukraine claims the pilot, Nadezhda Savchenko, was abducted by
separatist rebels and handed over to the Russians, while Russian
police claim she was arrested after trying to cross into Russia in
an effort to defect.
In Kiev, it was unclear when parliament would vote whether to
accept Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's resignation, which he
submitted Thursday after the ruling coalition in the chamber
dissolved, a move meant to clear the way for elections that would
likely give popular President Petro Poroshenko stronger
backing.
Mr. Poroshenko had asked parliament to consider the matter
urgently, but two key groups of lawmakers said Mr. Yatsenyuk should
continue in the post, even as government officials said Deputy
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman had been selected as acting prime
minister.
Olga Razumovskaya contributed to this article.
Write to Lukas I. Alpert at lukas.alpert@wsj.com
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