Eastern Ukraine has been contested territory since 2014, when Russian-backed fighters seized large swathes of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Russia had already seized the southern peninsula of Crimea in February 2014 before annexing it soon afterwards.

Many Russian soldiers say they would see a cease-fire along the current front lines as a failure, hinting at the nationalist discontent the Kremlin could face in accepting a cease-fire.

May 14, there were 168 combat clashes at the front. The enemy exerted the most pressure in the Pokrovsk direction, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reports. "Over the past day, the aviation,