Luhansk

The Russian army has announced the capture of two more villages in Ukraine, claiming control over Ivanivka in the Kharkiv region and Netailove in the Donetsk region. However, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that Ukrainian forces had repelled an attack near Ivanivka, located east of the city of Kupiansk.

Heightened tensions grip Ukraine as Russian airstrikes target key cities, with both the capital Kyiv and western hub Lviv bearing the brunt of nocturnal attacks.

Ukraine's parliament approved late on Nov. 26 the imposition of 30 days of martial law in 10 areas located on the Russian border, the border with the Russian-controlled Transnistria region of Moldova and oblasts located by the Black and Azov seas, reported Kyivpost.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on Wednesday that Russia had more than 9000 troops and 500 tanks, heavy artillery and armoured personnel carriers in eastern Ukraine.

Poroshenko hurled this accusation during his visit at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which he had to leave earlier due to the renewed escalation of violence in Ukraine, the BBC reports.

The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) announced in one of its regular reports that a ceasefire had been agreed between representatives of Ukraine's armed forces and the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic.

Pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine have entered the key port of Novoazovsk on the Sea of Azov, opening a new front in their fighting with government forces.

According to reports from journalists and military on the ground Novoazovsk has been captured by the rebels who are now believed to be advancing towards the port of Mariupol, the BBC said.

Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has dissolved parliament and announced snap elections for 26 October.

In a televised address late on Monday, he said many Urainian lawmakers supported ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and blocked reform which made it necessary to cleanse parliament.

The first vehicles of a Russian aid convoy have reached the war-torn Ukrainian city of Luhansk this afternoon, ignoring charges of ‘direct invasion’ by the government in Kiev.

Four-way talks on alleviating the crisis in eastern Ukraine had been difficult, but some progress was made, the German foreign minister has said.

A top commander of the pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine said August 9 that Ukrainian forces have seized a key town, leaving the rebel region’s largest city of Donetsk surrounded.