Fighting rumbled on in east Ukraine on Thursday between Government troops and pro-Russian rebels despite a fresh push for ceasefire talks from international envoys.
Ukraine’s border service said that nine guards were wounded when rebels shelled the Dolzhansky border post with Russia, a strategic crossing that Kiev won back days earlier in a step hailed as the “first victory” since the renewal of its military offensive.
Elsewhere, the Defence Ministry said in a statement that its forces had destroyed five trucks carrying “terrorists”. The statement said that rebels had launched 16 attacks on Government checkpoints during the past 24 hours.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko this week ripped up a 10-day truce, which Kiev says the insurgents broke over 100 times at the cost of 30 lives. The military then announced a “massive” anti-rebel operation in the eastern rustbelt.