Russia’s UN Envoy: Kiev Not Applying Political Part of Minsk Agreement

One guardsman was reported on Monday as having been killed in the unrest and almost 90 wounded.

At a meeting Thursday with his National Security and Defense Council, Poroshenko said Ukraine would increase the number of contract soldiers in its armed forces, targeting areas that require special training and expertise.

Thirty individuals were arrested following the lethal demonstration. “Tell me, how does Svoboda differ from the bastards who shoot at our national guard at the front?” he wrote. Wielding truncheons, pipes and sticks with nails, they faced off against police in riot gear. But those parties’ opposition to the measure appears firm and Poroshenko faces a steep battle to push it through.

Now that 265 politicians have given it preliminary approval, the bill comes up for the final vote where Poroshenko will need to get at least 300 votes. The war cost Ukraine between 8 and 10 million lives.

Returning to the political foreground after being sidelined by the Euromaidan revolution that brought Poroshenko to power, Tymoshenko criticized his policies for giving the “illusion of peace”.

“War is not an excuse to stop reforms”, he said.

Greater regional autonomy for the regions is a requirement in accordance with the current tattered ceasefire agreed in Minsk in February by the Ukrainian and Russian governments, as well as by rebel leaders.

The police said they had found the man, formerly a fighter in a volunteer battalion in the restive east, who is believed to have thrown the grenade.

Authorities pointed the finger at activists from the ultra-nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, but they denied responsibility.

The right-wing Radical Party quit the ruling coalition yesterday in protest at the legislation.

Putin said that it was “crucial” to give more powers to the separatist Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Three police officers died and more than 140 people were wounded after violent clashes broke out outside Ukrainian parliament between nationalists and police on Monday.

During the latest peak in violence last month, Moscow blamed Kiev, saying Ukrainian forces were preparing a fresh offensive against the rebels.

His ouster unleashed a separatist insurgency in the industrial east that has killed more than 6,800 people.

Thomson ReutersObama meets with Vladimir Putin during the G8 Summit at Lough Erne in EnniskillenMOSCOW (Reuters) – Moscow said on Wednesday it would react in kind to United States’ widening of sanctions imposed on Russian Federation over the crisis in Ukraine, criticizing the move as straining relations and posing risks for worldwide stability.