page_title: Battle of Kramatorsk
section_title: Second government counter-offensive
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Kramatorsk / Events / Second government counter-offensive
caption_attribution_description: English: Ukrainian roadblock between Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, May 11, 2014.
context_page_description: An entrenched standoff between the Armed Forces of Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the Donetsk People's Republic took place from 12 April until 5 July 2014. During the rising unrest in Ukraine in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast came under the control of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic on 12 April. In an effort to retake the city, the Ukrainian government launched a counter-offensive against the separatist, who had taken up positions in the city. The DPR army units withdrew from city on 5 July, allowing Ukrainian forces to subsequently recapture the city, ending the standoff.
context_section_description: Government forces focused primarily on Sloviansk for the next few days. However, on 25 April, a military helicopter at the Kramatorsk airfield exploded after its fuel tank was shot while it was taking off. Insurgents claimed responsibility for the shooting, and said that they had hit the helicopter with a rocket propelled grenade in an interview with Russian media. Dmitry Tymchuk, a defence expert and director of the Centre of Military and Political Research in Kiev, told reporters that the Mi-8 helicopter pilot had managed to escape with minor injuries. A transport aeroplane was also reportedly destroyed.
  After having recaptured many formerly occupied buildings in Sloviansk during a renewed offensive there, Ukrainian forces successfully captured a television transmission tower in Kramatorsk on 2 May. Further clashes between the Ukrainian army and insurgent fighters overnight on 2–3 May led to the death of ten pro-Russian activists, and left thirty injured, according to a local pro-Russian self-defence leader. During the fighting, the Ukrainian army was able to remove the insurgents from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) building that they had been occupying. Street battles broke out, and Russian media reported that the city was mostly under the control of Ukrainian forces, with only the city square remaining under pro-Russian control. However, it was reported the next day that the building had been abandoned by government forces, rather than fortified, and that the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic still flew from it even after the insurgents had been evicted.
  This eviction did not last long, as the Ukrainian army abruptly withdrew back to their positions at the military airfield on 4 May. Insurgents then reclaimed the SBU building and police station that had been abandoned by Ukrainian forces. During the day, clashes erupted between insurgents and an army column on a road near Kramatorsk, which left one civilian dead.
  A Ukrainian army unit was ambushed near Kramatorsk by about thirty DPR soldiers on 13 May. The ambush was initiated when DPR forces fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an armoured personnel carrier that had been carrying paratroopers, causing the vehicle to explode. Many soldiers were injured in the ensuing skirmish, and seven soldiers were killed, along with one separatist. A government mortar carrier was also destroyed in the fighting.
  As part of the continuing military operation around Kramatorsk, the army destroyed a separatist hide-out in a forest near the city, and captured three DPR soldiers, on 15 May.
caption: Ukrainian paratrooper roadblock with a BMD-2 between Kramatorsk and Sloviansk on 11 May 2014
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