(20 Aug 2014) Nine troops were killed in overnight fighting in the streets of a town neighbouring the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, a Ukrainian official said Wednesday, as the government battled to gain control of a major railroad and highway linking the area to Russia.
Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security Council, said Wednesday nine soldiers of two volunteer battalions were killed in fighting in Ilovaysk overnight.
Twenty-two were injured.
Volunteer battalions recruited from around Ukraine have proven essential in the government offensive against armed separatists in the mainly Russian-speaking east.
Lysenko added that fighting was continuing in Ilovaysk after more than a day of hostilities, although government forces had gained overall control of the town.
Ilovaysk lies on a major railroad and a highway which connects the regional capital of Donetsk to the Russian border to the south-east.
Lysenko also commented on a convoy of Russian aid which was parked near the border with Ukraine awaiting inspection.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which is expected to take responsibility for the convoy when it enters eastern Ukraine, was still waiting for security guarantees from all sides on Wednesday.
"Documentation about the content of this convoy has still not been presented to the Ukrainian side by the mission of the Red Cross in Ukraine," Lysenko said.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, meanwhile, said that rebuilding Donbass, which encompasses the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, would cost billions of dollars.
"It's absolutely clear these actions (destroying of infrastructure) have been planned to choke us economically," he told his cabinet.
Yatsenyuk said both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank could be sending in funds totalling 2 billion US dollars to help rebuild the infrastructure.
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