Pro-Russian separatists may own the ground around the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, but they don't control the air.
That's the message the Ukrainian Air Force had for activists that gathered there Wednesday when a Ukrainian fighter jet, rumored to be a MIG-29, made a dramatic flyover above a group of separatists blocking rail lines.
People look at a Ukrainian military jet fly above them in Kramatorsk. REUTERS/Maks Levin http://t.co/iNWHdgakbe pic.twitter.com/7IcbeigPeG— Mark Kolmar -Reuters (@mpkolmar) April 16, 2014
The plane featured an insignia for the Ukrainian Falcons, the Air Force's aerobatic display team, The Aviationist reported.
Here's another angle of the jet's flyover:
The Ukrainian military is in the midst of an anti-terror operation that aims to drive out the pro-Russian separatists who have stormed government buildings, overrun police barracks and stolen armored personnel carriers.
"I'm convinced that there will not be any terrorists left soon in Donetsk and other regions, and they will find themselves in the dock -- this is where they belong," Ukraine's acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said, hours after his forces recaptured an airfield in the region, leading to conflicting reports about the exact number of causalities from the operation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev have both warned of "civil war" in the region, despite western accusation that it is the Russians themselves who are behind the recent uprisings.
“It has all the telltale signs of what we saw in Crimea,” United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Sunday. "It's professional, it's coordinated, there's nothing grassroots-seeming about it," she said. "Certainly it bears the telltale signs of Moscow's involvement."
While continuing diplomatic efforts, U.S. prepared to enact further sanctions in response to #Russia’s unjustified & destabilizing actions.— Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) April 14, 2014