Ukrainian forces will press ahead with a military offensive against rebels in the east until peace and order have been restored there, Ukraine's acting defense minister said on Friday. Speaking after 14 servicemen, including a general, were killed on Thursday when rebels shot down an army helicopter, the minister, Mykhailo Koval, said: "Our given task is to bring peace and order to the region." Repeating charges that Russia was carrying out "special operations" in the east of Ukraine, Koval said Ukrainian forces would continue with military operations in border areas "until these regions begin to live normally, until there is peace." On Thursday, U.S. defense officials said that Russia has pulled most of its forces away from the Ukraine border, a withdrawal that the U.S. has been demanding for weeks.
They said about seven battalions remained, amounting to a couple of thousand troops. U.S. officials had estimated as many as 40,000 Russian forces had been aligned along the border with a restive eastern Ukraine that has been wracked with violence between government security forces and pro-Russian separatists.
The defense officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the precise numbers.
OSCE
Another team of monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has been detained in eastern Ukraine, the Vienna-based OSCE said on Friday.
The detained team from the OSCE's special monitoring mission is in addition to another missing team in the east of the country, which was last heard from on the evening of May 26, the OSCE said.
Gas
A top European Union official said Ukraine's gas company will pay $786 million to its Russian counterpart as a first step toward paying Kiev's debts and preventing a supply cutoff.
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said Ukraine's Naftogaz told a meeting Friday it had ordered the payment. Russia's Gazprom and the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers were also present at the meeting.
Oettinger said Russia's representatives declared themselves ready to resume talks on Ukraine's outstanding gas debts and its future gas price in Brussels Monday provided they receive the money Monday as expected.
Oettinger described the outcome as "progress but not a breakthrough."
REUTERS/AP