Russia said on Thursday that Ukraine's pro-Western interim government had stepped up military operation in the east of the country and accused it of failing to implement measures aimed at ending the crisis, Reuters reported. "Kiev has not only not ceased but has increased the punitive operation against its own people and is firing at cities in the east," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a news conference. At least eight Ukrainian security personnel were killed and 18 wounded in overnight clashes with pro-Russian separatists in the east, three days before a presidential election that the rebels say they will disrupt.
