Ukraine troops, pro-Russians clash near border
Iran Press TV
Mon Aug 25, 2014
Fresh clashes have broken out between Ukrainian army troops and pro-Russia fighters escorting a convoy of vehicles near the border with Russia, Ukraine's military says.
According to the Ukrainian armed forces spokesman, several dozen armored vehicles and tanks have crossed the border near the southeastern town of Novoazovsk, about 10 kilometers from the Russian border.
Andriy Lysenko said the border guards have engaged in fighting with pro-Russia forces, trying to stop the convoy's movement.
Pro-Kiev local militias alleged the column was heading toward Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol, on the Azov Sea.
Semen Semenchenko, the commander of the Azov Battalion, a paramilitary group supporting the Kiev government, said on his Facebook page that around 50 armored vehicles had crossed the border from Russia.
Russia has not commented on this latest claim yet, but it has repeatedly denied the accusations by Ukraine and its Western allies that Moscow is arming the pro-Russia forces in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Moscow forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence the pro-Russians in mid-April.
The political unrest in eastern Ukraine has so far claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people, according to figures released by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
On Friday, dozens of Russian trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed into the border with Ukraine and arrived in the Ukrainian city of Lugansk to deliver food and medical supplies to the people in the conflict-stricken regions in eastern Ukraine.
SF/KA/HMV
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