250 Russian mercenaries killed in combat, says Ukraine

Some 250 Russian ‘mercenaries’ have been killed in recent fighting in the eastern regions of Ukraine, the Ukrainian military command said Monday.An official statement said Ukrainian forces had ‘killed 250 Russian mercenaries and destroyed eight tanks of the enemy, in addition to ten armoured vehicles, three missile launchers and a mortar’.The report was not confirmed by other sources.The statement went on to say that pro-Russian militias had attacked with artillery fire and small arms the positions of the Ukrainian troops in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, but did not mention Ukrainian casualties.