Ukrainian troops inch closer to Donetsk
21 Aug 2014 5:10 AM IST
Ukrainian government troops were fighting pro-Russian rebels in the streets of Luhansk on Tuesday and captured most of a town near the eastern city of Donetsk, tightening the noose around that key rebel-held stronghold, Ukrainian officials said.
As the fighting raged, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko at an August 26 meeting in Minsk, Belarus. The two leaders have not met since early June, despite a rapidly climbing death toll in east Ukraine. One soldier was killed and four wounded on Tuesday when a volunteer battalion came under mortar fire before entering the town of Ilovaysk, 18 kilometers east of Donetsk, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook.
Among the wounded was the commander of the Donbass battalion, Semyon Semenchenko, who said government soldiers had destroyed three rebel checkpoints and four firing positions and that fighting continued.
Government efforts to quell the separatists have focused on encircling Donetsk, the largest rebel-controlled city in eastern Ukraine. Fighting began in mid-April after Russia annexed the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea but in the last few weeks, the government has recaptured significant amounts of rebel territory.
Ukrainian troops were also advancing in the separatist region of Luhansk, capturing one neighbourhood in the city of Luhansk as they battled the rebels on Tuesday on city streets, Col Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council, told reporters. agencies
As the fighting raged, the Kremlin announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko at an August 26 meeting in Minsk, Belarus. The two leaders have not met since early June, despite a rapidly climbing death toll in east Ukraine. One soldier was killed and four wounded on Tuesday when a volunteer battalion came under mortar fire before entering the town of Ilovaysk, 18 kilometers east of Donetsk, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Facebook.
Among the wounded was the commander of the Donbass battalion, Semyon Semenchenko, who said government soldiers had destroyed three rebel checkpoints and four firing positions and that fighting continued.
Government efforts to quell the separatists have focused on encircling Donetsk, the largest rebel-controlled city in eastern Ukraine. Fighting began in mid-April after Russia annexed the southern Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea but in the last few weeks, the government has recaptured significant amounts of rebel territory.
Ukrainian troops were also advancing in the separatist region of Luhansk, capturing one neighbourhood in the city of Luhansk as they battled the rebels on Tuesday on city streets, Col Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security Council, told reporters. agencies
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