Three pro-Russian protesters are dead and 13 are injured following a firefight in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian forces detained 63 of the Russian protestors in the most violent confrontation in that part of the country since the unrest began, according to the New York Times.
Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook that the military had to deploy helicopters “because it was such an aggressive attack on a military unit," according to the BBC.
This violence is the latest in a string of confrontations. A crowd of civilians and pro-Russian gunmen turned back an armored column on Wednesday that had rolled in to reestablish Ukrainian control in the region.