13 Ukrainians killed in clash with separatists - president's office

Russia moved 15 transport planes and 20 trains carrying personnel and military equipment out of three provinces that border Ukraine, Interfax reported the Defense Ministry as saying on Thursday.        

"The moving of units is continuing," Interfax quoted a Defense Ministry statement as saying, adding that the troops were returning to their permanent bases after conducting military exercises in the border provinces.

This comes as thirteen Ukrainian servicemen were killed in an overnight clash with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, a spokeswoman for acting President Oleksander Turchinov said.
  
Security sources earlier said at least eight people had died in the clash, which occurred near the town of Volnovakha, about 20 km (12 miles) to the south of Ukraine's industrial hub of Donetsk, where separatists have declared a 'people's republic'.
  
The clash, one of several overnight in the region, came three days before Ukrainians vote in a presidential election billed as the most crucial since the country gained independence from Moscow in 1991.

Separately, Ukrainian border guards said they had 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.

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.

President Vladimir Putin 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.

Russia said also that Ukraine's pro-Western interim government had stepped up its armed operation in the eastern part of the country and accused it of failing to implement measures aimed at ending the crisis.
 
"Kiev has not stopped but is increasing the punitive operation against its own people and is bombing cities in eastern Ukraine," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.


REUTERS