KIEV, Aug. 17 - Ukrainian forces have raised their flag over a police station in the city of Luhansk which was for months under rebel control, Kiev said on Sunday.

Ukrainian officials said however the rebels were fighting a desperate rearguard action to hold on to Luhansk - which is their supply route into neighboring Russia - and that the flow of weapons and fighters from Russia had accelerated.

Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said government forces fought separatists in Luhansk on Saturday and took control of the Zhovtneviy neighborhood police station, Rueters reported.

"They raised the state flag over it," Lysenko said.
Separatist officials in Luhansk could not be reached by telephone, and a separatist spokeswoman in Donetsk, the other rebel strong-hold, said she had no information about Luhansk.

A photograph posted on Twitter appeared to show a Ukrainian flag on the front of the police station, but it could not be independently verified.

Separatists still control sections of the border linking Luhansk region to Russia.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced another military success, saying his forces had recaptured a railway junction at Yasynuvata, north of Donetsk, which he said had "strategic significance”.

The rebels responded with defiant rhetoric and fighting.

Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday the separatists shot down a Ukrainian warplane.

On Saturday, Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said rebels were in the process of receiving some 150 armored vehicles, including 30 tanks, and 1,200 fighters trained in Russia. He said they planned to launch a major counter-offensive.

"They are joining at the most crucial moment," he said in a video recorded on Friday.

The assertion that the fighters were trained in Russia is awkward for Moscow, which has repeatedly denied allegations from Kiev and its Western allies that it is providing material support to separatist fighters.

"We have repeatedly said that we don't supply any equipment there," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian officials have painted a picture of a separatist force that is on the run and starting to panic - though rebel fighters Reuters reporters have spoken to in Donetsk say they are determined to stand firm.

In the past week, three senior rebel leaders have been removed from their posts, pointing to mounting disagreement over how to turn the tide of the fighting back in their favor. (rt/ez)