Ukraine's first big win over rebels dims truce hopes

Resurgent Ukrainian forces on July 6 pursued retreating pro-Russian rebels after seizing their symbolic bastion in a morale-boosting win that appeared to dim hopes for a ceasefire in the bloody separatist insurgency.
      
Western-backed President Petro Poroshenko called the moment when his troops hoisted the Ukrainian flag over the militias' seat of power in Slavyansk "a turning point" in a campaign that has killed nearly 500 people and inflamed East-West ties.
      
The rebels admitted suffering heavy losses while abandoning the strategic city nearly three months to the day after its capture marked the onset of a new and even more bloody chapter in Ukraine's worst crisis since independence in 1991.
     
Most analysts think Poroshenko desperately needed a battlefield success one month into his presidency to secure the trust of Ukrainians frustrated by their underfunded army's inability to stand up to what they see as Russian aggression.
      
"This is not a full victory and no time for fireworks," the 48-year-old chocolate baron cautioned in a national television address.
      
He noted the insurgents were now regrouping around the million-strong eastern industrial hub of Donetsk and vowed to flush out "terrorists who are entrenching themselves in large cities".
      
A top commander in the Ukrainian irregular forces' Donbass battalion on Sunday reported recapturing the cities of Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka just south of Slavyansk.
      
But he also urged residents not to walk the streets at night because "this can be dangerous".
                      
The surge of optimism in Kiev has only added to already strong pressure on Poroshenko...