Ukraine's Interior Minister said Monday that he had drafted a new special forces unit into the southern port city of Odessa after the "outrageous" failure of the police to counter pro-Russian separatists during a weekend of violence that killed dozens.
Fighting continued near the eastern city of Slaviansk, where Ukrainian troops have been, somewhat tentatively, pressing a campaign to end the pro-Russian rebellion. A correspondent said gunfire seemed to be coming closer to the city center.
The violence in Odessa, a port city with a broad ethnic mix from Russians and Ukrainians to Georgians and Tatars, is seen as something as a turning point in Kiev — a warning of the dangers if rebellion spreads beyond the Russian-speaking east.