Ukrainian government sources said its troops and pro-Russian separatists were locked in fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine. <br /><br />This comes after rebels rejected a cease fire proposed under a blueprint for peace by President Petro Poroshenko.<br /><br />Military sources say Ukrainian forces had leafleted rebel areas giving them an ultimatum to lay down their weapons.<br /><br />Up to 4,000 separatists could be involved in the fighting, according to reports.<br /><br />Meanwhile NATO’s Secretary General said at least a few thousand more troops are at Ukraine’s eastern border, a build-up he called, “a regrettable step backwards.”<br /><br />Russia maintains there is a humanitarian crisis on its border, while Ukraine denies there’s a flood of fleeing refugees.<br /><br />Gianni Magazzeni, Chief of the Americas, Europe, and Central Asia Branch at the UNJ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in Geneva said: “This situation results in multiple human rights challenges for the people that are caught in the crossfire or even the larger populations within this pocket of territories. <br /><br />“But it’s also a question of a total breakdown in law and order, the inability to get protection when it comes to ill treatment, detention, abductions and possible also torture and executions”<br /><br />Ukraine’s parliament has confirmed its next foreign minister will be current ambassador to Germany Pavlo Klimkin.<br /><br />President Petro Poroshenko’s candidates for central bank chief and general prosecutor were given an unusually high level of support by MPs.
