page_title: War in Donbass
section_title: Sloviansk
hierarchical_section_title: War in Donbass / History / Expansion of separatist territorial control / Sloviansk
caption_attribution_description: English: Sloviansk city council under control of armed forces. The masked men are holding Kalashnikov assault rifles (AK-74) and having rocket launchers on their backs (very similar to Soviet/Russian RPG-26).
context_page_description: The War in Donbass is an armed conflict in the Donbass region of Ukraine, part of the Ukrainian crisis and the broader Russo-Ukrainian War. From the beginning of March 2014, in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement, protests by Russia-backed anti-government separatist groups took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, collectively called the "Donbass". These demonstrations, which followed the February–March 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and which were part of a wider group of concurrent protests across southern and eastern Ukraine, escalated into an armed conflict between the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and the Ukrainian government. While the initial protests were largely native expressions of discontent with the new Ukrainian government, Russia took advantage of them to launch a co-ordinated political and military campaign against Ukraine. Russians citizens led the separatist movement in Donetsk from April until August 2014, and were supported by volunteers and materiel from Russia.
context_section_description: A group of masked pro-Russian militants under the command of a retired FSB officer Igor Girkin took control of the city administration building, police offices, and SBU building in Sloviansk, a city in the northern part of Donetsk Oblast, on 12 April. After militants took over the city, Sloviansk mayor Nelya Shtepa briefly appeared at an occupied police station, and expressed support for the militants. Others gathered outside the building, and similarly voiced their support for the militants. They told Ukrainian journalists who were reporting on the situation to "go back to Kiev". Nelya Shtepa was later detained by the insurgents, and replaced by the self-proclaimed "people's mayor" Vyacheslav Ponomarev. The militants gained control of the city's police weapons cache and seized hundreds of firearms, which prompted the Ukrainian government to launch a "counter-terrorism" operation to retake the city. This government counter-offensive began on the morning of 13 April. As a result, an entrenched standoff between pro-Russian forces and the Armed Forces of Ukraine ensued, marking the start of combat in Donbass. The city remained under siege until 5 July, when Ukrainian forces recaptured it, with an estimated 15,000–20,000 people displaced by the fighting. Mayor Shtepa was arrested on 11 July 2014 for allegedly colluding with pro-Russian forces.
  Shortly after taking control over Sloviansk, Girkin's group executed member of town council Volodymyr Ivanovych Rybak as well as four other citizens of Ukraine, including 25-years old Yuri Dyakovsky and 19-years old unnamed man. Girkin took responsibility for these executions in 2020, even though in the preceding years he and other pro-Russian militants claimed Rybak had been released from the custody.
caption: Pro-Russian insurgents occupying the Sloviansk city administration building, 14 April 2014
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