Ukraine border guard camp attacked in Lugansk

A number of Ukrainian border guards have been injured in an attack on their camp in the volatile eastern city of Lugansk.

Ukraine’s border guard service said some 100 armed men ambushed the camp located close to the border with Russia early Monday.

The guard service added that the Ukrainian soldiers responded by opening fire on the assailants whose numbers increased to 400 in a few hours’ time.

The incident comes amid escalating tensions between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian groups in the east.

Intense fighting broke out in the eastern city of Donetsk on May 26, with Ukrainian government air and ground forces attacking pro-Russian groups’ positions. The Ukrainian forces targeted the Sergei Prokofiev Airport with military air assaults after it was seized by armed men who identified themselves as representatives of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.

Three days later, pro-Russians shot down a Ukrainian military helicopter, killing at least 14 soldiers in the city of Slavyansk.

The government in Kiev has been staging military operations since mid-April in the eastern and southern regions in a bid to root out pro-Moscow demonstrations.

Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko has pledged to put an end to the war and bring peace to the former Soviet state. The 48-year-old chocolate tycoon has also ruled out negotiations with the pro-Russians, vowing to continue military operations in the country’s southeastern provinces.