Ukraine in the first significant battle of Ukraine's five-month-old conflict. REUTERS/Oli Scarff
ith heavy civilian casualties and high civilian casualties, Kiev's security service says its troops are fighting against insurgents backed by Russia and rebels loyal to former president Viktor Yanukovych.
n Saturday, more than 40 gunmen stormed parliament and government headquarters amid protests as an overnight peace meeting collapsed.
he insurgents used the parliament building as the base of militant cells that operate in eastern Ukraine. The gunmen were forced to retreat into an abandoned warehouse, while tanks and helicopters shot down a tank that fled south.
ro-government activists said the rebels were holding out against the rebels as hardline Ukrainians from rebel-held East Prussia and North Caucasus region, and their allies from neighboring Russia, marched through the streets of parliament.
ebels in government-held Donetsk, the capital Kiev accuses of a conflict that escalated in May with Russian air strikes, said they were attacking government buildings.
All the government buildings have been turned over to the rebels," said Ukrainian Defense Minister Heiko Mauthkov. "The fighting there will take place in a second. We have the most weapons yet."
bout 5,000 government soldiers, as well as police and soldiers from the central government, were battling rebels trying to restore power to the region's former Soviet-era government.
he separatists have staged a number