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Six Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in attacks by separatists in the past 24 hours, the Kiev military said on Friday as fighting raged at the international airport in the big eastern city of Donetsk.
“Six of our servicemen have been killed as a result of combat activity and another 18 have been wounded in the past 24 hours,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
Illegal armed groups conducted 34 strikes using mortars, artillery weapons and Grad multiple-launch rocket systems against positions held by Ukrainian soldiers last night, the press center for the anti-terrorist operation has reported.
According to the report, the most intense shelling was observed near Donetsk.
Three black-clad gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar!” stormed the Paris offices of a satirical publication known for lampooning Islam Wednesday, killing 12, including its editor, three political cartoonists and a police officer whose cold-blooded murder at close range was captured on a disturbing video.
The masked, Kalashnikov-toting shooters moved with military precision, and then escaped following the 11:30 a.m. attack at Charlie Hebdo, the publication known for challenging Muslim terrorists with a 2011 caricature of Prophet Muhammed on its cover and which recently tweeted a cartoon of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and were being sought.
Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels were on Dec. 27 set to complete a swap of hundreds of prisoners as part of a new push for peace that came despite Kiev’s decision to cut off key transport links to breakaway Crimea.
The exchange began Dec. 26 on a dark and isolated stretch of a road north of the devastated eastern rebel stronghold of Donetsk, and unfolded as negotiators from both sides held video talks on Skype at reviving stalled negotiations.
Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian military, said on Thursday that three soldiers had been killed in attacks by pro-Russian militants in the past 24 hours.
“We lost three soldiers and another eight were wounded in the past 24 hours,” said Lysenko, adding there had been 22 breaches of the truce since a ceasefire - which began with a “Day of Silence” on Tuesday - was introduced.