Two Ukrainian Soldiers Killed In Donbas

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed during a combat mission in the eastern Donetsk region on December 1, the military said in a Facebook post.

They died from wounds inflicted by “unknown explosive devices” while defending the rear of the front line from a penetrating “sabotage and reconnaissance group.”

Their deaths followed a November casualty report by the Ukrainian military, which stated that six soldiers, including a colonel, were killed last month.

More than 13,000 people have been killed in the Donbas war, according to UN figures.

Four-way talks between France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine are planned for December 9 to end the conflict, which is in its sixth year.

After Russia invaded and took over Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in early 2014, it fomented a separatist uprising in the two easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of commanding, training, and supplying separatists, as well as fighting alongside militant groups in eastern Ukraine, allegations the Kremlin denies.

Russia insists the conflict is a civil war.