ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
Ukrainian government forces reclaimed the port city of Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists in heavy fighting on Friday (June 13) and said they had regained control of a long stretch of the border with Russia.
The advances are significant victories for the pro-European leadership in a military operation to crush the armed separatist rebellion that began in east Ukraine in April and to hold together the former Soviet republic of 45 million people.
"At 10:34 a.m. (0734 GMT) the Ukrainian flag was raised over City Hall in Mariupol," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook, less than six hours after the attack began on the city of 500,000, Ukraine's biggest Azov Sea port.
A ministry aide said the government forces stormed the rebels after they were surrounded and given ten minutes to surrender. At least five separatists and two servicemen were killed in the battle before many of the rebels fled.
Mariupol, which has c
