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At Least 14 Soldiers Killed In Attacks In Eastern Ukraine

May 22, 2014
by RFE/RL

Acting Ukrainian President OIeksandr Turchynov says 13 soldiers were killed in an overnight attack by separatists forces in the Donetsk region.

The Defense Ministry earlier said one soldier was killed in another overnight attack in the neighboring region of Luhansk.

The attackson May 21-22 were the deadliest for Ukraine's military since it launched an offensive six weeks ago against pro-Russian separatists who have declared their so-called 'people's republics' in two eastern regions.

In the worst of the two overnight attacks, insurgents used grenades and mortar shells to attack a roadblock set up by government troops near the town of Volnovakha, in the Donetsk region.

The attacks came three days before Ukraine holds a crucial presidential election on May 25.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russia of trying to escalate the conflict ahead of the vote.

Yatsenyuk called on the UN Security Council to hold an urgent meeting on the crisis.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, meanwhile, said on May 22 that limited Russian troop movements near the border with Ukraine 'may suggest' preparations for a withdrawal.

NATO's top military commander also said NATO has noted some movement of Russian troops away from the Ukrainian border, but that it was 'too early' to assess their size or importance.

Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, U.S. General Philip Breedlove, said that a 'very large and very capable force' still remains near the border.

Ukrainian officials said that even if the Russian forces were moving away from the border, 'armed terrorists' were still infiltrating Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejects the legitimacy of the pro-Western Ukrainian government but he says he ordered the withdrawal to help create 'favorable conditions' for the May 25 election.

Wolfgang Ischinger, the mediator for a peace plan for Ukraine sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), has urged both government forces and the separatists to refrain from violence in the run-up to the election.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission said on May 22 that separatists were blocking the work of election officials in 16 out of the 34 electoral districts in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, UNIAN

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-violence- deaths-volnovakha/25394775.html

Copyright (c) 2014. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.