One serviceman killed, 10 wounded in east Ukraine - military
KIEV, July 1 (Reuters) - One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and ten others were wounded in separatist attacks in the troubled east of Ukraine in the 24 hours up to mid-day on Wednesday, the Ukrainian military said.
"The situation in the Donetsk region remains the most difficult and it has not undergone major changes - separatists are using tanks and mortars," Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.
Ukrainian forces and rebels accuse the other of regularly violating a ceasefire deal signed in Minsk, Belarus, in February.
Over 6,200 people have been killed since fighting erupted in April last year. Ukraine and NATO accuse Russia of supporting rebels with troops and weapons, a charge the Kremlin denies.
Poroshenko says Ukraine will get back the Crimean Peninsula through diplomacy and that the autonomous status of Crimea and Sevastopol will be preserved.
A political cartoon from our Ukrainian Service's Crimea desk:
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Ukraine To Start Debt Restructuring Talks Next Week
Ukraine and its creditors agreed July 1 to start negotiations next week on restructuring the country's debt, after weeks of arguing in public.
The two sides met at the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington and afterwards issued a statement saying they would keep the talks confidential so as to "allow principal-to-principal negotiations on the substance of a possible solution."
"The parties have agreed to enter such negotiations in good faith, with no preconditions, and with the objective of concluding an agreement on the terms of the debt operation as soon as possible," they said.
Creditors represented by the Ad Hoc Committee of Ukraine's Bondholders -- mainly four U.S. investment and hedge funds -- are under pressure to write off a significant amount of the country's heavy debts.
The IMF conditioned its $17.5 billion bailout program for Ukraine in March on the country also receiving $15.3 billion in debt relief over four years from bond restructuring.
But bondholders want Ukraine to lengthen the debt repayment period rather than write it off.