11 Ukraine soldiers ‘missing’ after ambush in east
Ukraine says eleven of its soldiers have gone missing in action after an ambush in an area in the country’s volatile eastern region.
Vladyslav Seleznyov, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman, said Friday that the soldiers from a special forces battalion went missing a day earlier after being ambushed while going to a checkpoint near the village of Smile in Lugansk.
Seleznyov added that there were several burnt-out Ukrainian armored vehicles in the area.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said three soldiers have been killed over the past 24 hours in fighting with pro-Russia forces in several hotspots in the country’s eastern region, including the outskirts of the city of Donetsk and its airport.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, held talks along with European leaders in the Italian northern city of Milan over the Ukraine crisis on Friday, amid a fragile ceasefire between Kyiv and pro-Moscow forces.
According to Poroshenko, the two sides have reached “moderate progress,” with deals likely to be struck on a gas dispute and local elections in the east.
The Russian president said the talks went “good,” while Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, criticized “certain participants” of taking an “absolutely biased, non-flexible, non-diplomatic” approach to the issue of Ukraine.
The ceasefire, signed on September 5 in a bid to halt months of fighting between Ukraine troops and pro-Russians, has been repeatedly violated by both sides.
In April, the Ukrainian army launched military operations against pro-Russia forces in Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east.
The European Union and the United States accuse Russia of destabilizing Ukraine and have slapped sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures. Moscow, however, rejects the accusation and has responded with retaliatory sanctions of its own.
CAH/HSN/SS