The Joint Forces command is trying to determine their whereabouts.

Eight soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost their way and have been taken captive by the Russia-led forces in the occupied part of Donbas.

Read alsoThree Ukraine soldiers wounded in Donbas amid five enemy attacks on Tuesday

"We inform that, according to preliminary information, eight members of Ukraine's Joint Forces, moving by truck near the village of Novotroyitske, mistakenly deviated from their route this morning and entered the temporarily occupied territory, where they were detained by members of the Russian armed forces," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation wrote on Facebook on May 22.

The Joint Forces command is taking all possible measures to determine the Ukrainian soldiers' whereabouts and return them.

The military prosecutor's office included data in the State Register of Pretrial Investigations. The investigation into the incident is underway. </s> Ukrainian authorities say eight military personnel have been captured by Russia-backed fighters in the eastern region of Donetsk.

 

 Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operations (OOS) in the country's east said in a statement that the soldiers were captured on May 22.

 

 "According to preliminary information, early in the morning today, eight military personnel of Ukraine's armed forces from the OOS took a wrong turn while moving aboard a truck near the town of Novotroyitske and found themselves in temporarily occupied territory, where they were captured by fighters of the Russian Federation's armed forces," the OOS statement said.

 

 The Ukrainian military frequently refers to Russia-backed separatist forces who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as "fighters of the Russian Federation's armed forces."

It also says that many regular Russian soldiers have fought in the conflict there, a claim that Moscow denies despite what Kyiv and NATO say is incontrovertible evidence.

 

 Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said earlier in the day that three soldiers were wounded in five cease-fire violations by Russia-backed forces over the previous 24 hours.

 

 The separatists in turn accused government forces of violating the cease-fire twice since May 21.

 

 Some 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April 2014, when Russia encouraged separatism following the downfall of Moscow-friendly Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

 

 Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed at resolving the conflict -- have contributed to a decrease in fighting but have failed to hold.

 

 A new cease-fire agreement was reached on March 8, but both sides have accused each other of repeated violations since then.

 

 The conflict in the region known as the Donbas is one of the challenges facing President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was inaugurated on May 20. </s> Ukrainian authorities said four soldiers had been killed in fighting Russia-backed separatists, some of the worst violence in weeks in war-torn eastern Ukraine. Kyiv military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said the clashes occurred January 29 near Avdiyivka, a town north of the regional center Donetsk.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Weekday Magazine. </s> Military officials in Ukraine said that eight soldiers were captured in the eastern region of the country occupied by pro-Russian separatists just one day after Ukraine's newly sworn-in president announced he would submit a peace plan for a referendum.

Pro-Russian separatists and their Russian backers had occupied the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine ever since a pro-Western movement ousted former President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. An estimated 13,000 people have since died in the fighting.

During his swearing-in ceremony on Monday, newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, or lose his job trying. His administration also promised to submit a preliminary peace plan, hashed out with Russia, to the people for a vote. But one day later, Ukrainian soldiers were captured in the occupied territories.

"According to preliminary information, early in the morning today, eight military personnel of Ukraine's armed forces from the OOS took a wrong turn while moving aboard a truck near the town of Novotroyitske and found themselves in temporarily occupied territory, where they were captured by fighters of the Russian Federation's armed forces," Ukraine's Joint Forces Operations said in a statement.

The Minsk peace process, negotiated by Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany, has led to numerous cease-fires. But violations of the cease-fire agreements were reported regularly.

It was unclear how Zelenskiy planned to change the situation on the ground. But on Tuesday, the president appointed a new commander of Ukraine's armed forces, marking the first change in leadership since the conflict broke out in 2014. Lieutenant General Ruslan Khomchak was now the new chief of the general staff. He had years of experience fighting the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, including near Donetsk city.

Also on Tuesday, the Kremlin issued a statement warning Zelenskiy against pursuing further sanctions against Russia, saying that it would harm any effort to broker peace in eastern Ukraine. The comments were made shortly after a top Trump administration official visited Ukraine's capital, Kiev, and warned that Washington would soon pass a bill to sanction Moscow if it continued to pursue a controversial pipeline project, the Nord Stream 2, which would bring cheap Russian natural gas to European Union countries, bypassing Ukraine.

Zelenskiy had called on Washington to sanction Moscow more harshly. Energy Secretary Rick Perry later said the new bill would likely target companies helping to build the new pipeline.

"This is the rhetoric that will not help Ukraine to sort out the problem of the southeast," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned, referring to the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Experts said that the new bill in Washington could effectively deliver an economic blow to Moscow, but was unclear whether the Trump administration would actually move forward with it.

"By focusing on the companies that supply the vessels that lay deep-sea pipelines, the bill has potential to be very effective. It targets one of the only aspects of the project that Russia needs foreign technology for," Brenda Shaffer, an energy expert at Georgetown University, told Newsweek.

"However, as with most sanctions' legislation, the devil is in the details. Congress frequently passes all sorts of sanctions, but most are discretionary sanctions, where essentially the executive can decide to apply them or not," Shaffer continued. "Accordingly, if the administration wants to improve relations with Moscow, it most likely will not apply the sanctions." </s> According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded.

Russian-led forces mounted 43 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past day, using artillery systems and 120mm and 82mm mortars 10 times.

"There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours and since the beginning of the current day. According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on May 19, 2018.

Read alsoTerrorist leader Girkin expects Ukraine army may soon liberate several settlements in Donbas

Active military operations continued in the Luhansk sector near the town of Popasna, and the villages of Novozvanivka and Troyitske.

In the direction of the town of Horlivka, the enemy was active near the villages of Zaitseve and Zalizne, as well as near the Avdiyivka industrial zone and the village of Pisky, which are in the Donetsk sector.

In the Mariupol sector, the hostilities continued near the villages of Vodiane, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne.

"A sniper pair was spotted near Vodiane. The fire was quickly suppressed by counter-sniper measures," reads the report. </s> A total of eight Ukrainian military men have off routed and taken hostage by militants in Donetsk region.

Press-center of the JFO has said this in a statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The Command of the JFO is taking all possible measures to locate and return them.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on May 21, militants fired upon positions of Joint Forces Operation units five times, three Ukrainian military men were wounded. </s> KIEV (Reuters) - The number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in an offensive by pro-Russian separatists over the past two days has risen to seven, Ukraine’s military said on Monday, in the deadliest outbreak of fighting in the east of the country since mid-December.

The clashes between Ukraine’s military and the pro-Russian separatists coincide with U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for better relations with Moscow that has alarmed Kiev while the conflict in its eastern region remains unresolved.

The rebels began attacking government positions in the eastern frontline town of Avdiyivka on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. Five soldiers were killed and nine wounded on Sunday and two more were killed on Monday, they said.

“The situation in the Avdiyivka industrial zone is challenging. The enemy continues to fire at our positions with heavy artillery and mortars,” Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told a regular daily briefing.

The separatist website DAN said on Monday shelling by Ukrainian troops had killed one female civilian and wounded three others in the rebel-held town of Makiyivka, south of Avdiyivka. The reports could not be independently verified.

On Sunday the separatists said one of their fighters had been killed during heavy Ukrainian shelling of their positions.

Both sides accuse the other of violating a two-year-old ceasefire deal on a near-daily basis.

Close to 10,000 people have been killed since fighting between Ukrainian troops and rebels seeking independence from Kiev first erupted in April 2014.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was due to discuss the state of the conflict on Monday in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who helped broker the Minsk ceasefire deal.

Ukraine and NATO accuse the Kremlin of supporting the rebels with troops and weapons, which it denies. The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict, as well as for its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.

Ukraine is anxious that international resolve to hold Russia to account may waver following the election of Trump, who has spoken of possibly lifting sanctions against Moscow.

Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday and the two men agreed to try to rebuild strained ties and to cooperate in Syria. </s> KIEV/NOVOLUHANSKE, Ukraine (Reuters) - Fighting in eastern Ukraine has escalated to the worst level in months, officials monitoring the conflict said on Tuesday, after the shelling of a frontline village wounded eight civilians and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

 A Russia-backed insurgency erupted in 2014 and the bloodshed has continued despite a ceasefire deal that was meant to end a conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed, with casualties reported on a near-daily basis.

 The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which monitors the implementation of the peace agreement, said it had recorded 16,000 ceasefire violations between Dec. 11 and Dec. 17, a 35 percent increase on the week before. 

 "We note with concern a sharp deterioration in the security situation with ceasefire violations reaching levels not recorded since February this year," chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan said in a statement.

 In February, a surge of violence around the government-held industrial town of Avdiivka cut off power and water to thousands of civilians on the front line.

 Apakan said the latest escalation reflected an established trend "in which a recommitment to the ceasefire by the sides was followed by a steady increase in the level of violence, culminating in fierce fighting". 

 Apakan's comments followed warnings from aid agencies over the humanitarian situation in the eastern Donbass region, particularly given Monday's attack on the government-controlled village of Novoluhanske.

 The United Nations' OCHA humanitarian arm said on Twitter heavy shelling near Novoluhanske was affecting 2,000 residents.

 People are fleeing the area in blizzard conditions, it said.

 Eight civilians were wounded and more than 50 buildings were damaged in the shelling, which also temporarily cut power supplies, the regional Kiev-controlled Donetsk administration said.

 A Reuters witness saw residents picking their way through the rubble of destroyed homes and surveying fire-blackened buildings.

 The U.S. State Department said the humanitarian situation was "dire" because of the shelling, which it blamed on Russian-led forces firing Grad multiple-launch rockets.

 The Ukrainian military on Tuesday accused pro-Russian separatists of deliberately firing more than 40 times from multiple-launch rocket systems at Novoluhanske. 

 Meanwhile, the rebel command said attacks from the Ukrainian side had almost doubled in the past 24 hours, according to separatist news website DAN.

 Rebels deny attacking Novoluhanske and say the Ukrainian military fired at the village to justify their attacks on separatist-held civilian areas, according to DAN.

 The U.S. State Department also voiced concern about fighting around the Donetsk water filtration station, which has a system of pipes that carry chlorine gas.

 "If those were to go off in this area, which is close to where people live, it could be potentially devastating," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing.

 She said civilian water workers were trapped in the station's bomb shelter and could not get out because of fighting.

 In an effort to end the deadlock, the international community, including the United States, has in recent months been advocating for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the Donbass.

 Both Kiev and Moscow backed the idea but disagree on whether the troops should be positioned on the rebel-controlled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, so no decision was made.

 Russia denies accusations from Ukraine and NATO that it supports the rebels with troops and weapons.

 

 (Reporting by Alessandra Prentice and Oleksandr Klymenko; additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Alison Williams and Grant McCool) </s> Ukrainian authorities said four soldiers had been killed in fighting Russia-backed separatists, some of the worst violence in weeks in war-torn eastern Ukraine.

Kyiv military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk and Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said the clashes occurred January 29 near Avdiyivka, a town north of the regional center Donetsk.

The town is home to a major coke producing plant and a steel smelter.

Motuzyanyk said at least one separatist fighter was killed in the fighting which involved large-caliber mortars and artillery.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine, which erupted nearly three years ago, has ebbed and flowed amid repeated efforts to cement a lasting cease-fire.

The latest truce was announced in December.

More than 9,750 people have died in the conflict, which began shortly after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled amid violent antigovernment protests in Kyiv in February 2014.
The Ukrainian military reports that eight Ukrainian soldiers have been captured by pro-Russian fighters near the village of Novotroyitske.