Baku-APA. Ukrainian forces battled pro-Russian rebels for territory on Wednesday on one of the bloodiest days in the 10-month war ahead of a pivotal peace summit on the conflict, APA reports quoting AFP.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany are to meet shortly in Minsk for what the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said would be a "turning point for good or bad".
Dozens of people were reported killed in the run-up to the summit, the climax of a frantic diplomatic push to prevent the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War from escalating.
Germany said the meeting, the most intensive international push for an end to the bloodshed in the east of the former Soviet state, offered a "glimmer of hope, nothing more".
But Russia, accused by the West of fomenting the conflict by pouring troops and weapons across the border, voiced optimism.