Seven Ukrainian soldiers killed in an ambush in the Donetsk region

The conflict in eastern Ukraine claimed new victims on Tuesday as the independence leaders in the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk (Don basin) undertook an attempt to coordinate the two projects pro-Russian autonomy referenda after the May 11, neither Kiev, neither the European Union nor the U.S. recognized.

Seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed and seven wounded in an ambush by pro-Russian separatists near the city of Kramatorsk, according to the Defense Ministry in Kiev. This is the incident with the highest number of deaths among troops loyal to Kiev since the interim government started military operation against insurgents in the east . In Lugansk, the "popular governor" Valeri Bolotov survived an attack in which he was injured, according to a spokesman for the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Lugansk.

The ambush occurred Ukrainian soldiers, according to the version of the Defense Ministry, when thirty armed and hiding in the bushes insurgents attacked a military column when it approached a bridge in access to a village 20 kilometers from Kramatorsk . This industrial town is in the war zone of maximum intensity around Slaviansk.

The rebel governor of Lugansk is injured in an attack

Moscow , for its part, did not respond to the request of the independence of Donetsk joining Russia , but sources claimed that separatists expect a more active attitude in Moscow they have a constitution and a government that can serve as interlocutor. To approve the constitution meets Wednesday the "Parliament" of the People's Republic of Donetsk (RPD), indicate sources of this entity.

The "Russian tutors" are already in Donetsk and the "connection has been" pro-Russian sources noted that no details about the identity of the alleged emissaries. Meanwhile, the governor of Donetsk Sergey Taruta said Tuesday that the RPD is "just a made up name." "Russia is in no hurry to welcome into its ranks the region" and "Donetsk can not live independently two weeks" because its economy can be paralyzed, he said. "There is no alternative to economic stabilization," said Taruta, who said he was working across the region, except in Slaviansk, that presidential elections be held May 25. The separatists do not recognize these elections.

Slaviansk has become separatist "military capital", after the Russian officer who calls himself Igor Strelkov be made ​​proclaiming "commander in chief" of all uniformed contingent rebels. The data in the official biography vary if sources are Ukrainian or Russian. For the former, the military is working to counter the directory (GRU) of the Russian Defense Ministry. For the latter, was retired and he began to organize military resistance Kiev own initiative together with other Russian veterans. The military, which according to sources is called the Ukrainian Igor Girkin, actions attributed Bosnia and Chechnya . Volunteers from South Ossetia have strengthened the ranks of the insurgents in Chechnya Slaviansk and volunteers, to the city of Mariupol, in southern Donetsk, media reports said that separatists could not be verified.

The new "commander in chief" of the RPD has taken on the task of bringing order and fuse into a single structure the various militias, said the sources. At least three activists who do not want to be identified confirmed that on the night of May 11, the "commander in chief" asserted its political role and commanded his men to "protect" the ballot box with votes that were sent to Donetsk, for fear that they could be stolen by "infiltrators" of Ukraine or the service of a refundable federalist project in this country.

Strelkov has also begun to act to control crime and unruly behavior of some of the militias, which act at will and frighten citizens, says a source in the security services separatist. In this condition there are ideological and personal struggles between leaders, as evidenced by fragmented and confusing accounts of the internal relationships in the RPD.

Also coexist various economic and social projects, including the socialist model, they say. There are also differences on how to organize the "independence" territory. DPR media warn that the binding regions of southeastern Ukraine to form a joint entity (Novorossia), Donetsk decreases the chances of being taken in by Moscow, but can turn around the Southeast in a nominally Ukraine Kiev area but attached to by weak ties and, in practice, a Russian protectorate.