U.S. official says Minsk truce being violated "daily":
A senior U.S. diplomat says a cease-fire deal in eastern Ukraine "is being violated on a daily basis."
U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland spoke on May 18 after talks in Moscow with Russian officials.
Nuland said the violations of the Western-brokered agreement signed in February in Minsk by Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels "need to stop."
Nuland suggested that pro-Russian rebels were responsible for the bulk of the violations, which occurred "on the western side of the Minsk line."
She called for OSCE monitors to be allowed in the conflict zone to verify how the cease-fire is being implemented.
Nuland, who arrived in Moscow on May 17 from Ukraine, met with Russian Deputy Foreign Ministers Sergei Ryabkov and Grigory Karasin.
She said her discussions with the two were "very detailed...very pragmatic," and were centered around ways that the United States might be able to support the implementation of the Minsk deal.
The visit comes after Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last week.
Nuland also met with veteran human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alekseyeva.
The Kremlin has described a visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland as a sign that bilateral relations are improving. (Reuters, Interfax)
Kyiv says two soldiers killed in fighting:
Ukraine's military says two of its servicemen have been killed and four others wounded in separatist attacks in the country's east.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on May 18 that the casualties occurred over the past day.
The announcement came after the Ukrainian military claimed to have captured two Russian soldiers fighting alongside pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
More than 6,000 people have been killed since clashes began in April 2014 between Ukrainian government forces and separatists in the country's east.
The eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions continue to be embroiled in sporadic fighting despite a cease-fire sealed in mid-February and brokered by Germany and France. (Reuters, AP, UNIAN)