Kiev: Ukraine said today fighting had erupted in the heart of major rebel stronghold Lugansk, as the bodies of 17 civilians fleeing the city were recovered from wreckage of their destroyed convoy.
As government forces cut deeper into insurgent territory, Kiev and Moscow announced that Presidents Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko will hold their first face-to-face talks in months next week with pressure piling on to end four months of brutal fighting.
Kiev’s military claimed for the first time that street battles with pro-Russian insurgents were raging in the centre of second-largest insurgent hub Lugansk after one outlying district was “liberated”.
If confirmed, any advance by Ukraine’s army into Lugansk would be a major breakthrough for Kiev in the bloody conflict that has claimed over 2,100 lives since April. (AFP)