text: Ukrainian Liveblog Day 139: Ukrainian Flag Raised Over Slavyansk, Relief Delivered
  Ukrainian flag raised in Slavyansk by Ukrainian army, 5 July 2014. Photo via EuroMaidan
  Col. Strelkov Declares Himself 'Military Commander of Donetsk'
  Col. Igor Strelkov (Girkin) has fled Slavyansk, but set up a new command in Donetsk, LifeNews and blogs associated with Strelkov's communiques have reported.
  In an interview uploaded to YouTube by Ikorpus, a website that has distributed his statements in the past, a visibly exhausted Strelkov reflects on the past three months he held Slavyansk under siege. He doesn't blast Moscow for failing to back him, as he is often reported to be doing, but does convey some reproach:
  "I don't want to say Russia didn't help. There has been a huge stream of humanitarian cargo, equipment, uniforms, that comes to us through private channel. But the help which we desperately need does not arrive at this time. Please understand that even if we get two tanks, four, even ten tanks, five-six artillery pieces, even if a plane flies here once, this will have no impact whatsoever."
  As for the "demobilization order" that Strelkov allegedly signed on
  July 4, given that in this interview apparently later the same day, and
  in a subsequent interview July 6, he says his men were going to continue
  to fight, the document is either a fake or was prematurely released.
  Strelkov gave another interview to LifeNews on July 5, in which he declared himself the "military commander of Donetsk."
  Meanwhile, some of Strelkov's influential fans in Moscow were beginning to denounce him, perhaps in anticipation in a change of line from Putin.
  In another odd bit of news, Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the deposed and supposedly executed "people's mayor of Slavyansk" who was arrested and disappeared some weeks ago, was supposedly spotted on the road out of the city, fleeing among other separatists. He allegedly gave an interview to LifeNews, a tabloid TV channel close to Russian intelligence agencies:
  Yet a blog also associated with Strelkov's statements in the past said this was an actor with "a good make-up job".
  If you were wondering whether another separatist leader, Igor Bezler or "Bes" [Demon] was still MIA after the retreat from Slavyansk, there's a fresh profile of him dated July 6 in a pro-separatist publication describing the new "tsardom of Bes" as a checkpoint outside of Gorlovka. And he's reportedly brought 14 of his hostages with him, whom he calls his "guests," and has imprisoned them at the Interior Ministry City Department of Gorlovka, although allowed them to roam the building, watch TV, and contact their relatives.
  2014-07-07 02:44:34
  The population is beginning to realize who the true liberators are – not the militia who had brought fear and murders to the East of Ukraine, TSN said in a program.
  2014-07-07 02:32:22
  The OSCE has released a rather brief and vague statement on talks today about the conflict in Ukraine — but at least there are talks: