Ukraine said that as tensions with Moscow escalated, one of its soldiers was killed in battles with pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.
Kiev has been fighting the pro-Moscow rebellion in the two bordering secession regions Russia Since the Kremlin annexed the Crimea Peninsula of Ukraine in 2014.
Russia is gathering troops near the Ukrainian border. The West has accused it of planning an invasion and threatened Moscow with massive sanctions if it launches an attack.
The Ukrainian army stated that separatists used grenade launchers and mortars to target their positions. It said that one soldier was killed and another was wounded.
Kiev and its allies accuse Russia of supporting the rebels militarily-Moscow denies this claim.
According to statistics from Agence France-Presse based on official data, the latest deaths brought the number of deaths in Ukraine’s brewing conflicts since the beginning of this year to 65, compared with 50 in 2020.
Russia has assembled about 100,000 soldiers on the side of its border. Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin that if the army attacked Ukraine, “he has never seen sanctions”.On Thursday, EU leaders Urge Moscow to stop its military buildup And back to the talks led by France and Germany.
To date, conflicts in eastern Ukraine have caused more than 13,000 deaths.
