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NINE Ukrainian soldiers were reported killed in battles with anti-fascist separatists today.
Government spokesman Colonel Andriy Lysenko said 27 others were wounded in clashes — while authorities in rebel-held Donetsk said at least three civilians had died due to shelling by the regime.
The fighting will further undermine a shaky ceasefire between the two sides agreed on September 5, which has been repeatedly violated.
Tensions between the Kiev authorities and the separatists, who took up arms to defend their localities following the neonazi-backed coup in the Ukrainian capital in February, rose further as ultra-nationalists tore down a statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin in Kharkiv.
Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Arsen Avakov signalled his approval by tweeting: “Lenin? Let him fall.”
The Svoboda and Right Sector parties of the Ukrainian far right view themselves as heirs to the nazi collaborators who fought against the Soviets in World War II and have vandalised many Soviet-era monuments.
