Ukraine said that one of its soldiers was killed in a bombing carried out by the pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country, while Moscow confirmed that it does not plan to intervene in the conflict and that it will take any action based on the development of events.

According to a statement issued by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the separatists violated the ceasefire five times near the towns of Vesky and Gudyani, in the south of the Donbas region, between midnight and seven in the morning.

After announcing the death of a soldier today, the death toll from the Ukrainian army rises to 11 in the past two weeks.

Clashes break out in the "Donbas" between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists who unilaterally declared their independence in 2014, killing thousands since then.

It is noteworthy that relations between Kiev and Moscow have been witnessing escalating tension for about 7 years, due to Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula to its territory, and its support for separatists in the "Donbas".

The European Cooperation and Security Organization indicated - in its report - that 1,500 violations of the ceasefire were detected in the first days of this month.

For their part, the pro-Russian separatists announced that the Ukrainian army bombed this morning the vicinity of the city of "Donetsk" in the southeast of the country.

Zelensky urged NATO to present a practical plan to accelerate Ukraine's accession to the alliance (Reuters)

Maneuvers with NATO

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrei Tarn revealed that his armed forces will participate in 7 maneuvers with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) this year.

The Ukrainian minister said that these maneuvers are an important engine for Kiev's pursuit of NATO membership, especially in light of the escalating tension in the Donbas region and what he described as Russian aggression.

President Volodymyr Zelensky met with the head of the NATO Military Committee, Stuart Beach, and the Ukrainian presidency announced that Zelensky stressed during the meeting Kiev's commitment to the ceasefire agreement in the east of the country signed last July.

On the Ukrainian side, the meeting was attended by Defense Minister Andrey Taran, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Ruslan Khumchak, and a number of security and political officials.

Yesterday, Zelensky called the Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, urging him to present a practical plan to accelerate his country's accession to the alliance and to strengthen its military presence in the Black Sea.

One of the fighting fronts in eastern Ukraine (Reuters)

The German position

In the context, a statement by the German government stated that Chancellor Angela Merkel informed Russian President Vladimir Putin - in a phone call - of the need for his country to reduce its forces at the Ukrainian border.

On the other hand, the Secretary of the Russian National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that his country is not planning to intervene in the Ukrainian conflict, and that it is closely monitoring the situation and will take any action based on the development of events.

Patrushev said - in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper - that the current escalation in Donbas "is a consequence of the internal problems of Ukraine, in which the authorities are trying to divert attention from its reality."

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry called on Ukraine and NATO countries to stop the military preparations, and to abandon what it called measures that would destabilize eastern Ukraine.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Kiev continues to push additional forces towards the contact lines in Donbas, and violates the Minsk agreements, stressing Moscow's position in support of a political solution to the conflict in the region within the framework of this agreement.