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Fighting rages at Ukrainian airport 3 reported dead
(MENAFN- Arab News) DONETSK Ukraine: Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed fighting pro-Russian rebels the government said Thursday as fighting engulfed a key airport in the east of the country.
The latest clashes rocked a shaky truce as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko traveled to Italy for talks on the conflict with European leaders and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Friday.
'Three Ukrainian soldiers died in shooting over the last day' military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists adding that nine more servicemen had been wounded.
He said pro-Moscow separatists have been increasingly active in southern Donetsk region where seven civilians died this week on the outskirts of government-controlled city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea coast.
At the airport in the outskirts of rebel hub Donetsk AFP journalists heard intense mortar fire but a Ukrainian flag over the older of the two terminals indicated that government forces are still in position.
The airport has been one of the flashpoints of the conflict in recent weeks despite a cease-fire agreement signed between the two sides last month. Volleys of mortars and rocket shells however were exchanged by the enemy forces in the area and a separatist leader accused the Ukrainians of bringing heavier rocket launchers.
Lysenko said that despite an order by President Vladimir Putin at the weekend for 17600 Russian troops along the border to return to base Kiev has not observed a significant pullback.
'We don't have information regarding the return to their regular locations of the large number of Russian soldiers near the border' he said. 'There has been some movement... but we have not seen a pullback.'
Putin made the announcement ahead of high-level talks on the Ukraine crisis Friday in Milan where he will meet Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko along with several European heads of state.
The talks will address implementation of a cease-fire Kiev struck with the pro-Russian rebels in the east on September 5 which however has proven ineffective in stopping bloodshed in a six-month conflict that hs already killed over 3600 people.
The latest clashes rocked a shaky truce as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko traveled to Italy for talks on the conflict with European leaders and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Friday.
'Three Ukrainian soldiers died in shooting over the last day' military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists adding that nine more servicemen had been wounded.
He said pro-Moscow separatists have been increasingly active in southern Donetsk region where seven civilians died this week on the outskirts of government-controlled city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea coast.
At the airport in the outskirts of rebel hub Donetsk AFP journalists heard intense mortar fire but a Ukrainian flag over the older of the two terminals indicated that government forces are still in position.
The airport has been one of the flashpoints of the conflict in recent weeks despite a cease-fire agreement signed between the two sides last month. Volleys of mortars and rocket shells however were exchanged by the enemy forces in the area and a separatist leader accused the Ukrainians of bringing heavier rocket launchers.
Lysenko said that despite an order by President Vladimir Putin at the weekend for 17600 Russian troops along the border to return to base Kiev has not observed a significant pullback.
'We don't have information regarding the return to their regular locations of the large number of Russian soldiers near the border' he said. 'There has been some movement... but we have not seen a pullback.'
Putin made the announcement ahead of high-level talks on the Ukraine crisis Friday in Milan where he will meet Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko along with several European heads of state.
The talks will address implementation of a cease-fire Kiev struck with the pro-Russian rebels in the east on September 5 which however has proven ineffective in stopping bloodshed in a six-month conflict that hs already killed over 3600 people.
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