Soldiers killed as Ukraine marks first anniversary of war

(Vatican Radio) Police say several Ukrainian soldiers were killed Sunday in the east of the country when their vehicle was struck by a shell fired by Russian-backed separatists, on the eve of the first anniversary of a one-year insurgency that has claimed more than 6,000 lives.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report: 

Regional police said the troops were killed when their military vehicle was hit as it drove across a bridge in Schastye, a government-held town about 170 kilometres north east of the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

Their deaths underscored troubles with a ceasefire which is technically in force since February, when it was brokered by leaders from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.

Earlier in the past week three Ukrainian servicemen died and two were wounded in a land-mine explosion in separatist eastern territories.

The incidents come while Ukraine prepares to mark the first anniversary of the start of the conflict in a hugely demoralised state with its economy shattered and NATO membership a very distant, if not impossible, prospect.

RUSSIA SUFFERING

However neighbouring Russia is suffering too amid ongoing Western sanctions over its role in Ukraine. The West has accused Russia of supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine with weapons and troops following its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Moscow has denied the charges, but admits that "Russian volunteers" are active in the region.

Analysts say that despite international pressure, Moscow was successful in using the one-year insurgency for its political goal: Russia managed to keep Ukraine out of the NATO military alliance because it is struggling with two unresolved territorial disputes in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

Looking back to the conflict in the east, which erupted on April 6 last year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told Euronews television that his nation urgently needs international peacekeepers to stabilize the region.

"Where do we need these peacekeepers? First, on our border, because the border is a key element of the sovereignty and we need peacekeepers to close these borders to stop supplying troops, ammunition and weapons to Ukrainian territory, very simple," he said. "And second, the peacekeepers alongside the buffer zone, with the touch line which was set here just to guarantee peace and stability.”

UKRAINE'S TERRITORY

Poroshenko warned he doesn't need Russia's permission for such an operation. "This is the territory of Ukraine. And we hate the idea that any other state will decide if the United Nations’ peacekeepers should be there or not," he added.

However he stressed that most peacekeepers would represent the European Union as in his words they are Ukraine's partners.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has proposed that first both sides in the conflict in Ukraine withdraw weapons of under 100 mm calibre from front lines as a way of boosting confidence in the February cease-fire.