Siege of Sloviansk

Siege of Sloviansk
	Part of the war in Donbas
Date	12 April – 5 July 2014; (2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Location	Sloviansk and outskirts, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine
Result	Ukrainian victory DPR forces withdraw to Donetsk; Ukrainian forces recapture Sloviansk;
Belligerents
Ukraine	Donetsk People's Republic; Russia; (claimed by Ukraine)
Commanders and leaders
Oleksandr Turchynov; Petro Poroshenko; Arsen Avakov; Serhiy Kulchytskiy †; Stepan Poltorak; Dmytro Yarosh; Maksym Shapoval; Valentyn Nalyvaichenko	Vyacheslav Ponomarev; Vladimir Pavlenko; Igor Strelkov; Arseny Pavlov; Vladimir Zhoga; Alexander Khodakovsky; Sergei Zhurikov † ("Romashka"); Alexander Mozhaev ("Babay" or "Bogeyman")
Units involved
Armed Forces of Ukraine: Ground Forces; Air Force; Airmobile Forces 95th Airmobile Brigade; 25th Airborne Brigade; ; Internal Affairs Ministry: National Guard; Militsiya (Police); Security Service (SBU) SBU Alpha Group; Right Sector Ukrainian Volunteer Corps;	Donbass People's Militia: Pro-Russian local volunteers; Cossack National Guard Russian volunteers; ; Kadyrovtsy; 1st Sloviansk Brigade; Russian Orthodox Army; Somalia Battalion; Sparta Battalion; Russian Armed Forces: 45th Airborne Division (claimed by Ukraine);
Strength
15,000+; 160 tanks; 230 APCs; 150+ artillery pieces; 20 helicopters; 2+ other aircraft	800–1,000 fighters; 6 APCs
Casualties and losses
51 soldiers killed; 127 soldiers wounded; 40 soldiers captured; 2 SBU agents killed; 3 SBU agents captured; 1 police chief captured 4 Mi-24 helicopters shot down; 2 Mi-8 helicopters shot down; 1 An-30 shot down; 3 Mi-24 helicopters damaged; 2 Mi-8 helicopters damaged; 1 An-30 damaged	54 militants killed; 200+ militants wounded; 4 captured 1+ tank; 6 APCs
	~20 civilians killed from 13 April to 26 May. Unknown number from 27 May to 5 July.; 17 civilians and foreigners missing or kidnapped. Four Pentecostal Church members executed.; 1 Italian photojournalist and 1 Russian interpreter killed.

The siege of Sloviansk was an operation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to recapture the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast from pro-Russian insurgents who had seized it on 12 April 2014. The city was taken back on 5 July 2014 after shelling from artillery and heavy fighting. The fighting in Sloviansk marked the first military engagement between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in the Donbas War.

On 12 April 2014, as unrest grew in eastern Ukraine following the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, masked men in fatigues, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, took over the town and began to fortify it. They claimed to be local fighters of the Donetsk People's Republic, but were actually Russian Armed Forces 'volunteers' under the command of Russian GRU colonel Igor Girkin ('Strelkov'). In response, the Ukrainian Yatsenyuk Government created the first Anti-Terrorist Operations zone (ATO) and launched a series of counter-offensives against the insurgents, resulting in a standoff and violent skirmishes. Girkin later acknowledged that his men's seizure of Sloviansk started the Donbas War.

As tensions in the city increased, the insurgents began to take journalists and others captive, instigating a hostage crisis. The Security Service of Ukraine said on 18 April that "Sloviansk remains the hottest point in the region." On 20 April, Right Sector was ordered by acting President Oleksandr Turchinov to sabotage an insurgent-controlled television tower, leading to the first combat fatalities. By June, roughly 40% of the city's population had fled. On 5 July, after the insurgents had retreated to Donetsk City, Ukrainian authorities retook control of the city.

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