Ukrainian security officials said on Sunday they were in full control of the former rebel stronghold of Slaviansk after re-taking it in a victory which President Petro Poroshenko said could mark a turning point in the fight against the separatists, Reuters reported. Government forces routed pro-Russian rebels in the flashpoint city in eastern Ukraine on Saturday and raised the blue and yellow national flag again over what had for months been the separatist redoubt of Slaviansk. There were no immediate casualty figures available, though Ukrainian security officials said there had been no deaths on the side of government forces. "Ukrainian forces fully control the towns of Slaviansk and Kramatorsk," Andriy Lysenko, an official of the "anti-terrorist operation", told journalists, adding that the government had begun to rebuild the town's shattered infrastructure and ensure food and drinking water for residents.
