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Ukraine's President has just under 20 minutes to extend the ceasefire agreement. Poroshenko is under heavy pressure from Moscow to do just that. But there is no sign that the ceasefire has worked, and as the deadline approaches, Ukraine's troops are on the move: The news website Obozrevatel reports that Poroshenko has declared martial law in Donetsk and Lugansk. It's not official yet, but it seems that the ceasefire is over and a new phase of the anti-terror operation (ATO) is just beginning.

The Italian press agency ANSA has published the name of the journalist killed outside of Slavyansk: Andrea (Andy) Rocchelli. He was 30 years old. RIA Novosti has also reported that Rocchelli worked for the photo agency Cesuralab which was working in the region, and that his translator, Andrei Mironov, was also killed.

Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh has said that representatives of his organization will contribute to ensuring security at voting stations in eastern Ukraine. ...

Self-defense forces in the anti-Kiev stronghold of Slavyansk are Ukrainians, not Russians, who distrust the new regime and the Western powers that support it, New York Times reporters have discovered. The forces also said they are not being paid to fight. Two New York Times reporters have spent a week in the city of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine, talking to members of the self-defense forces. The journalists visited self-defense checkpoints and observed the forces as they battled Ukrainian troops amid a military assault on the city on Friday. The resistance fighters of the 12th Company, part of the People’s Self-Defense...

Fox News reported yesterday that Kiev is sending an "elite National Guard" to Odessa, and today the International Business Times reported that Kiev is sending an "elite National Guard" to Slavyansk. Who makes up the ranks of this elite National Guard when Vice News reported on March 19, 2014 - in their article "A look Inside Ukraine's Volunteer National Guard" - and in it said then that Ukraine had - by its own admission - only 6,000 combat-ready troops? Looks like Kiev didn't/doesn't have a pot to even... much less an "elite National Guard." BTW, Vice News was the news...

Ukrainian government forces are reported to have launched an operation in the city of Sloviansk. The city is a stronghold for pro-Russian separatists who are exerting increasing control over the eastern regions of the country. Separatists in the city and Russian television channels are reporting that the city is being stormed. News agencies report gunfire, explosions and a military helicopter firing on the outskirts of the city. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford, in eastern Ukraine, has spoken to Russian separatists who says fighting is taking place at checkpoints on the outskirts of the city - but she adds there is no...

Many pro-Russia rebels have been killed, injured and arrested in the Ukrainian government offensive in the eastern city of Sloviansk, interim president Oleksandr Turchynov has said.

Russia's foreign ministry has expressed outrage at a fatal shooting incident in eastern Ukraine which it blamed on Ukrainian nationalists. Russian state media reported that five people were killed in a gun attack on a checkpoint manned by pro-Russian activists near the town of Sloviansk. Ukrainian officials said one died in a clash between "two groups of citizens". The incident comes as pro-Russian groups continue to occupy government buildings defying a deal to leave. Etrogrul Apakan, who heads the special mission of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe in Kiev, said his deputy would be in Donetsk to...

Five people have been killed in a gunfight in Slavyansk, a city in eastern Ukraine held by anti-government protesters. The fatalities include three protesters and two attackers, who are believed to be from the Right Sector paramilitary. Read RT's live updates on Ukrainian turmoil The deaths came after a night attack on a protester checkpoint on the outskirts of the city. Four cars drove by the checkpoint and opened fire at the local residents manning it, killing two people and seriously injuring several others. “They approached with their high beam headlamps on. Our man went to them and asked not...

Ukrainian troops are storming an airfield in the eastern city of Kramatorsk, said anti-Maidan activists as cited by RIA Novosti. The activists added that several people were injured. Ukrainian troops approached the military airfield in armored personnel carriers between the eastern cities of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, the people’s militia located at the airfield told RIA Novosti on the phone. “They started negotiating with the people’s militia, which is in control of the airfield. The shooting started unexpectedly. There are injured among the people’s militia, and there may be deaths,” they said. Other members of the militia have blocked the entrance...