Some more info on current situation in Ukraine.

Ukraine is to blockade two major cities still in rebel hands as it continues its operation against pro-Russian separatists, a senior official says.

The government says its forces have retaken two more eastern towns, Artemivsk and Druzhkivka.

The official said they would now lay siege to the regional centres of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Government forces regained control of the key rebel strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk on Saturday.

Senior Ukrainian security official Mykhaylo Koval told Ukrainian television: "There is a clear strategic plan, which has been approved. The plan is focused on two major regional centres: Luhansk and Donetsk. These cities will be completely blockaded," he said.

"These measures will result in the separatists - let us call them bandits - being forced to lay down arms."

The level of support for the militants in the two regional capitals is unclear. However, several thousand people joined a rally in Donetsk on Sunday attended by leaders of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic.

The separatists declared independence in both Donetsk and Luhansk regions after Russia annexed the Crimea region in March.

Despite their defeats in four towns and cities in the past three days, rebel units have staged several attacks on Ukrainian army positions in the past 24 hours, according to the defence ministry in Kiev.

Overnight into Monday, the pro-Russian insurgents fired mortar rounds and machine guns at checkpoints around four towns, Interfax Ukraine news agency reported.

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Father was lying on the porch with his arm blown off - eyewitness to Ukraines shelling.

The daughter of a man killed by an artillery shell fired by Kievs forces in a quiet Russian town just across the border from Ukraine is still in shock. In a night of horror, she also had to save her 11-year-old brother from the bombing.

Andrey Shulyatyev, a 46-year-old father of four, was killed on Sunday when an artillery shell from Ukraine hit his private house on the border, in the Rostov Region of Russia

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This could get even worse now since, apparently, Ukraine has 'technically' bombed Russia and killed someone. Wonder what will happen next.

Ukraine are reporting that a Russian jet has shot down a Ukrainian 'warplane' over Ukraine.

I hope nothing gets censored. But this is truly awful.

The U.S. says it has "new evidence" that Russian forces have been firing artillery across the border to attack Ukrainian military positions, and that Moscow is planning to ship powerful rocket artillery to the rebels it backs in the country's east.

"We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine, and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said during a daily briefing.

"I can't tell you what the information is based on," Harf said.

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Russia may be on the point of walking out of a major cold war era arms-control treaty, Russian analysts have said, after President Obama accused Moscow of violating the accord by testing a cruise missile.

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Ukraine Civil War Death Toll 1,100, over 3,500 wounded - UN

Some 1,129 people have been killed and nearly 3,500 wounded in eastern Ukraine since the start of the Kiev's military operation in April, according to UN estimates.

The report also states that these are the minimum casualty toll estimates by the UN monitoring mission and WHO.

The report says that the cause of the rising death toll is intensified artillery shelling of the civilian residential areas and the so-called collateral damage of the armed actions in the heavily-populated areas.

Has the war there slacked up or nah

Pretty intense video here if you want to check it out. I couldn't imagine what was going through this persons head at the moment.

Whats in the white trucks, Russia?
A massive convoy of more than 200 trucks ostensibly carrying aid from Moscow has sparked fears of a Russian invasion in eastern Ukraine.
The vehicles ex-military trucks that have been painted white and covered with white tarpaulin set out yesterday morning from a military depot in the southern Russian city of Voronezh where they had been parked since late Tuesday.
They arrived close to Ukraines border, near a crossing controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Moscow says the convoy has 262 vehicles, including about 200 trucks carrying aid.
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