“In the past 24 hours, the conflict in eastern Ukraine continued to escalate”. Towns between rebel-held areas in the Donetsk region and Mariupol, such as the village of Shyrokyne, have been the target of rebel attacks for the last year in attempts to advance on Mariupol itself. At least seven civilians and two Ukrainian troops were killed overnight today in eastern Ukraine as shelling from the warring sides intensified.
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A separatist website said government shelling in Gorlivka had killed three people. The next time they’ll get a quick response.
Two civilians have been reported dead here in the town of Sartana in east Ukraine, some 12 miles from the government-controlled port city of Mariupol. It was like that in January of this year.
The upsurge in fighting dogged Russia’s rouble on Monday.
Military escalation could happen at any moment if the parties involved don’t concentrate on the peace process, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier told his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, according to an interview with Bild am Sonntag published Sunday. “A lot is at stake”, Steinmeier said.
Under the ceasefire, signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk, both sides were supposed to pull back their heavy weapons.
But Lavrov said that the negotiations have stalled because of inflexibility by the Ukrainian government and that the area separating the Ukrainian forces from the rebels can no longer be described as a “contact line,” but rather a “front.”.
Russian Federation – accused by Kiev and the West of sending troops and weapons across the border to fuel the insurgency – turned the spotlight on Kiev, warning Ukraine could be readying for fresh fighting. Kiev’s National Security and Defense Council has said an estimated 9,000 Russian Federation Armed Forces personnel are believed to be inside Ukraine. But Russian Federation supports the separatist cause and has said it is using its influence over the rebels to push for peace in the region. Moreover, at the end of June, the Ukrainian Dnipro-1 Battalion released drone footage of what it said showed the construction of a military base inside Ukraine.
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More than 6,400 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since fighting broke out there in April 2014.
