Ukrainian president orders urgent Normandy Four Donbass talks

Ukrainian President Petr Poroshenko has instructed Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin to arrange talks on events in the embattled eastern Donbas region, a Twitter announcement said.
The statement calls for discussions within the Normandy Four group of senior diplomatic officials from Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France on developments.
Poroshenko said he had “charged minister Pavlo Klimkin with urgent consultations at Foreign Affairs Ministry level of Normandy Four on Donbas situation development.”

Earlier on Monday Poroshenko held a meeting on Donbas events with Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksandr Turchynov, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko and Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak.

According to the Defense Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Ukrainian armed forces fired 663 artillery, tank and mortar shells on its territory. As a result, “three civilians killed and one injured”.

“The Donetsk situation has worsened, the violation of the ceasefire regime increased three times over the past 24 hours,” the Donetsk news agency quoted the Defense Ministry statement.

Ukrainian troops killed 28 civilians in the first week of August, the DPR ombudsman reported.