Ukraine Reports First Military Death In New Year

(Vatican Radio) Ukraine has reported its first military death of 2015 in its conflict with pro-Russian separatists in the east. The announcement comes while Ukrainian authorities threaten to silence the country's biggest television channel for broadcasting a New Year's Eve concert featuring Russian artists.

Listen to the report by correspondent Stefan Bos:

Amid the tensions Ukraine's military said a soldier had been killed and five others wounded in New Year attacks by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"In the past 24 hours one Ukrainian serviceman has been killed and another five have been injured because of provocative actions (by separatists)," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters.

He said there had been frequent shelling and mortar attacks by separatists in areas of eastern Ukraine, including around the international airport in the big industrial city of Donetsk.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arsenyi Yatsenyuk has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of supporting the separatists with weapons and troops.

PUTIN BLAMED

“Why did Putin send his army to Ukraine? What was his aim?" the prime minister asked reporters. "Protecting the Russian language? But all of Ukraine speaks Russian, we don’t need protection. Protecting Donetsk and Luhansk regions? From whom? Five thousand people killed – this is what Russia’s responsible for,” he said. 

Yet, the conflict has added to anti-Russian sentiments in the country and pressure on media in the former Soviet republic: Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has urged the country's media authority to immediately consider stripping the television channel, Inter, of its license.

He accused Inter of "acting against the Ukrainian state" by showing Russian singers who he said mocked Ukraine by supporting what he called "terrorists and welcoming the seizure of Crimea and the Donbas" region. 

The official refers to a New Year's Eve concert recorded in Moscow which featured Iosif Kobzon, a prominent crooner and ruling-party Russian parliament member who has been declared persona non grata in Ukraine, and several other Russian celebrities known for their pro-Kremlin views.

BORDER GATE

One of the acts in the concert showed Kobzon standing behind a border gate with fellow singers Valeria and Oleg Gazmanov. The trio performed a song ridiculing Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

In a controversial move, Ukraine's minister of information policy, Yuriy Stets, plans to introduce a bill under which Russian performers will be barred from Ukrainian broadcasts.

Inter television denies wrong doing and has denounced what it calls "political pressure on the media."

The fighting conflict erupted in April after the overthrow of the pro-Russian president in bloody protests. On Kiev's independence square the victims are still remembered this New Year.

"We had hoped for a revolution, some changes," said Maria Maksymenkova, a 22-year-old activist and volunteer, who was on the final stage of her university course when the protests began.

SHOCK YEAR

"Nobody expected a war. This year was a year of shock," added the young woman, who has been cooking food for other activists and distributing hot drinks in the cold winter weather.

On the battle field, have been escorting another Ukrainian vehicle to an area where an allegedly wounded Ukrainian soldier has been waiting to be collected.

Yet there is some hope.

The German Foreign Ministry says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to meet “as soon as possible” to discuss ending the fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier discussed the standoff between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists in a January 2 telephone conference with his Ukrainian, Russian, and French counterparts.