KIEV, May 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Two Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and seven more were wounded in a special operation in Sloviansk, southeastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian parliament speaker and parliament-appointed President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov said in a statement posted on his website on Friday.

Turchynov claimed that people’s guards in Sloviansk “sustained considerable losses, with many people killed and wounded.” Ukrainian army, in his words, managed to “seize all fortified localities and check points” around the town, having enclosed it completely. “The attack is underway,” he said.

He added that the punitive operation in the town of Sloviansk in the southeastern Donetsk region was unfolding not that quickly as he wanted. 

“I would like to stress: the operation is going on not that quickly as wished it to be” because it is conducted in “densely populated areas,” he said.

Early on Friday, Ukraine’s army launched a special operation in the southeastern town of Sloviansk. The operation involved armoured vehicles and aviation. According to Ukraine’s defence ministry, two Mi-24 combat helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force were shot down, another one, a Mi-8 military transport helicopter, was damaged. According to the latest reports, three persons were killed, including two servicemen and one member of people’s guard.