Here is today's map of the security situation in eastern Ukraine, according to the National Security and Defense Council (CLICK TO ENLARGE):
Poroshenko labels Russia "aggressor" in Victory Day speech:
By RFE/RL
In Kyiv, Ukraineian President Petro Poroshenko lashed out at Russia at a commemoration ceremony, calling it an aggressor. Kyiv police said seven people were detained during the celebrations for carrying banned communist-era symbols and the St. George ribbon, which is seen by many Ukrainians as symbol of Russian aggression.
"Just like in the 1930s and 1940s, when our ancestors defended our land from the Nazi invasion, now we are defending our beloved Ukraine from the Moscow horde," Poroshenko said.
More than 10,300 civilians and combatants have been killed since April 2014 in the conflict between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
In Ukraine, May 9 has since 2016 been officially called the Day of Victory over Nazism in World War II -- wording that moved away from the Soviet term the Great Patriotic War.
Poroshenko, Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroysman, other officials, and veterans took part in a special ceremony to commemorate victims and heroes of the war, which devastated Ukraine and northern neighbor Belarus as Nazi forces attacked and then retreated across their territory.