International observers: Eastern Ukraine fighting continues
MOSCOW (AP) -- The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says its observers still witness fighting and the use of banned weapons in eastern Ukraine.
More than 9,000 people have been killed in fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government troops which has been raging since April 2014, according to the U.N.
Alexander Hug, OSCE deputy chief monitor in Ukraine, told reporters on Thursday fighting in eastern Ukraine continues despite the September cease-fire deal that also included withdrawing heavy and mid-caliber weaponry.
Hug said his observers this week documented the use of the banned weaponry on both sides of the conflict. He also lamented the fact that separatists in one of the two occupied regions refuse to give the observers access to or the location of the storage facilities.
Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Ukrainian Officer Killed During Raids To Arrest 'Saboteur' Group
A Ukrainian security officer has been killed during a special operation to detain an alleged group of saboteurs.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) officials said on December 10 that the group consisted of eight people -- five Ukrainian citizens and three Russians.
They said seven of the suspects were arrested during raids in Kyiv and Ukraine's eastern city of Kharkiv on December 9.
The alleged leader of the group, a Ukrainian man, also was killed during the raids.
The SBU said the group is suspected of conducting terrorist attacks in Ukraine.
Several explosions, some of them deadly, have been reported in cities in eastern Ukraine since fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces broke out in April 2014 following Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.