One Ukrainian soldier was killed, and three were wounded on August 25 in the conflict zone of the Donbas where Moscow-backed separatists continue to fight government forces.

All the casualties took place in the army's "north" operational and tactical group who took fire from "grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, and small arms," the military reported.

https://www.facebook.com/pressjfo.news/

One soldier died of his wounds during the evacuation of the four servicemen.

He was Vitaliy Sobko, 20, a marine from the western Ukrainian region of Ternopil.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2019/08/25/7224457/

More than 13,000 people have been killed in the Donbas conflict that started in April 2014 when Russian-backed separatists took up arms against government forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia's invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula preceded the armed uprising that prompted the European Union, United States and other countries to impose sanctions on Russia.

An additional 1.5 million people have been internally displaced, the largest migration of people on the European continent since World War II.

Sixty-six Ukrainian soldiers were killed through July of this year, according to Censor.net, a Ukrainian news portal.

After getting elected in April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for a four-way meeting with Russia, Germany, and France - known as the Normandy format - to revive peace talks with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

Moscow has said there is interest to renew peace discussions, but no date has been set.

Russia denies involvement in the Donbas conflict and has portrayed events there as Ukraine's "internal" affair.

Based on reporting by Ukrainska Pravda and Censor.net

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Republished with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036