Soldiers killed in east Ukraine clashes

At least eight Ukrainian security personnel
have been killed and 18 wounded in overnight
clashes with pro-Russian separatists in eastern
Ukraine, three days before a presidential
election in the former Soviet Republic.
Security sources said on Thursday that the
main clash took place about 20km south of the
industrial hub of Donetsk, which is now in the
hands of separatists who say they will disrupt
the election.
Ukrainian forces also fought separatists in the
neighbouring Luhansk region but there was no
word about any casualties there, the Reuters
news agency reported.
The defence ministry confirmed that several
people died in a firefight near Donetsk, but
gave no precise death toll. It added that the
clash occurred when gunmen opened fire on
an army checkpoint near the town of Volnovakha.
Separately, Ukrainian border guards said they
rebuffed an attempt by dozens of separatists,
armed with grenade launchers and rifles, to
enter the Luhansk region overnight from
Russia. Several guards were hurt in the fighting.
Separatists on Thursday also seized four
Ukrainian coal mines in the country's east,
according to the Ministry of Energy.
"The terrorists, threatening [workers] with
guns, are demanding explosives" in the eastern
Lugansk region near the Russian border, the
ministry said in a statement, adding that the
mines belong to the Lysychanskugol company.
Frequent clashes
Ukrainian security forces and the pro-Moscow
separatists have clashed repeatedly in recent
weeks in eastern Ukraine, where the
breakdown of security has rattled the pro-
Western interim government in Kiev.
Kiev has acknowledged that Sunday's election
cannot be held in parts of the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions and has accused Moscow of
deliberately seeking to undermine Ukrainian
democracy, a charge echoed by the United
States and European Union .
Russia denies the legitimacy of the current
Kiev government, which took over after mass
street protests toppled Moscow-backed
president Viktor Yanukovich in February. He
fled to Russia and in March Russia seized
Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, asserts
that Moscow has the right to intervene on
behalf of Russian speakers outside Russia's
borders and has expressed sympathy for
people in eastern Ukraine who he says face
discrimination and harassment by the Kiev government.