Twelve Ukrainian
soldiers were killed and 18 injured when a bus collided with military
trucks in bad weather in the war-torn east, the national guard said
Tuesday.
The collision Monday
night was due to bad weather and took place during the rotation of
professional soldiers and volunteers deployed in eastern Ukraine to
fight the pro-Russian rebels who have waged an insurgency against Kiev
since April, it said in a statement.
The
injured soldiers had been taken to a hospital in the town of Artemivsk
in the Donetsk region and were set to be evacuated out of the conflict
zone.
More than 4,700 people
have died in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian
President Petro Poroshenko is due to meet his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Germany and France for peace talks in
Kazakhstan on January 15.
Kiev (AFP) -