Deadly Clashes Precede New Ukraine Peace Talks
Ukraine on Tuesday reported the death of two soldiers in advance of European-mediated talks with pro-Russian insurgents aimed at breaking a deadlock over the future status of eastern separatist enclaves.
Kiev's military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said government forces came under particularly heavy fire from 122-millimeter howitzers in the rebel-controlled Lugansk province.
Lugansk's Kiev-appointed governor Gennadiy Moskal wrote on his website that two servicemen were also injured in attacks on villages near the border with Russia.
Separatist commander Eduard Basurin said three of his fighters and five civilians were also hurt in the neighboring rebel-run region of Donetsk.
The two predominantly Russian-speaking provinces -- once the heart of Ukraine's now-shattered coal and steel industry -- have been waging a war for independence from Kiev's new pro-Western leadership since March 2014.
The campaign has claimed the lives of nearly 6,500 and driven more than a million people from their homes.
It has also exposed the Kremlin to Western charges of trying to either regained control -- or leave permanently damaged -- Russia's post-Soviet neighbor to the south west.
The Kremlin's relations with the West are now suffering a post-Cold War era low that has sunk Russia's economic performance due in part to the sanctions imposed by Ukraine's allies across the world.
But Russia's Vladimir Putin -- who rejects playing any role in the 14-month conflict -- signed on to a February truce deal with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Belarussian capital Minsk that was co-sponsored by the leaders of Germany and France.
The ceasefire immediately helped limit the fighting to a few hotspots and breathed new life into hopes of peace.
But several rounds of follow-on talks between the warring sides' envoys failed to put any meat on the bones of the loosely-worded Minsk plan.
Kiev and the insurgents still dispute where exactly the truce line keeping apart the two sides runs.
The separatists also want to hold quick local elections that cement their semi-autonomous status within a unified Ukraine.
But Kiev insists that no such vote can be held until Ukraine secures full control of the Russian border and "all foreign armed formations" leave the war zone by the end of the year.
The disputes culminated in a disastrous Minsk meeting last month that saw the Russian envoy leave the room early and the chief mediator from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe soon submit her resignation papers.
The OSCE's Heidi Tagliavini is still expected to attend Tuesday's Minsk negotiations before being replaced by the end of the month.
Kiev's position is represented by former president Leonid Kuchma while Russia has appointed a new Kremlin envoy -- a veteran diplomat named Azamat Kulmukhametov who Ukrainian media believe has adopted a much tougher approach to the West.
Tuesday's talks will hope in the very least to briefly stem an upsurge in clashes that followed the last Minsk round. More than 50 people have been reported killed in fighting in the past two weeks.
