According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded.

Russian-led forces mounted 43 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past day, using artillery systems and 120mm and 82mm mortars 10 times.

"There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours and since the beginning of the current day. According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on May 19, 2018.

Read alsoTerrorist leader Girkin expects Ukraine army may soon liberate several settlements in Donbas

Active military operations continued in the Luhansk sector near the town of Popasna, and the villages of Novozvanivka and Troyitske.

In the direction of the town of Horlivka, the enemy was active near the villages of Zaitseve and Zalizne, as well as near the Avdiyivka industrial zone and the village of Pisky, which are in the Donetsk sector.

In the Mariupol sector, the hostilities continued near the villages of Vodiane, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne.

"A sniper pair was spotted near Vodiane. The fire was quickly suppressed by counter-sniper measures," reads the report.</s>Federal officials have flatly denied online rumours circulated by Russian social media accounts that three Canadian soldiers working in Ukraine were killed by a landmine.

The Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces told CTV News that the claims are totally false, and that there are no Canadians who have been injured or killed.

The false claim appears to have been first reported on a Russian-language website that cites the pro-Russian group the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The separatist group, which receives financial backing from Russia, was declared a terrorist group by Ukraine in 2015.

The report falsely claims that three NATO servicemen from Canada were killed by a landmine near Avdeyevka, a Ukrainian community near the Russian border. The report also claims that two American soldiers were injured in the blast.

The report alleges that Ukrainian officials plan to blame the pro-Russian group for the “attack,” which it calls an “accident.” Instead, the report says the landmine accident -- which never happened -- is the sole fault of the Ukrainian government.

The article cites the claim to the DPR’s “defense ministry.” The DPR is not a country and does not have a defense ministry.

Despite the untrue nature of the report, it quickly spread on Russian-language social media accounts. Eventually, the claims were translated into English and hit the radar of Western media.

The rumour appears to be fanned by Twitter accounts based in Russia, some of which may be trying to undermine faith in NATO. Several of the accounts consistently tweet anti-American sentiments.

Since 2015, Canada, Britain the U.S. have sent military trainers to Ukraine to teach soldiers skills such as bomb disposal, medical training and how to work as a unit. The move came after Russia annexed Crimea and began funnelling resources to pro-Russian separatists forces in Donbass, an eastern region in Ukraine.

It’s hardly the first time Russian cyber trolls have attempted to undermine NATO-linked forces. When Canadian troops arrived in Latvia last summer to support a multinational mission to bolster the country’s border, Moscow-generated fake news poured over the border through radio airwaves, television and social media.

Among the claims were that Latvia is a failed state and that Russia was best suited to create world order.

Russian meddling has also been linked to the 2016 U.S. election. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied his government’s role but said patriotic Russians may have decided to get involved in the strategic hacking.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the U.S. election, has charged13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies in an alleged plot to use social media propaganda to interfere in the election.

U.S. intelligence officials claim that Putin personally sought to ruin Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning the election in favour of U.S. President Donald Trump.

With a report from CTV’s Mercedes Stephenson in Ottawa and The Associated Press</s>While on a special fact-finding mission to Eastern Europe, the US’ Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker told the Ukrainian government that it would have to come to the realisation that its much-improved armed forces would be unable to recapture areas that it lost to Russian and Moscow-backed separatists over four years ago.

“There’s no way the Ukrainians can take the territory back, which has already been taken by the Russians. Russia is just too powerful, but the cost to Russia for a further advancement has already increased and will continue to increase. And if that’s the case, then you have to ask yourself if you’re sitting in Moscow, ‘What are we getting out of this? We are getting Russian casualties, soldiers being killed fighting in Ukraine, for what?’” Volker said in an interview with the Ukrainian Service of the BBC on May 17.

The message was a cold shower the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as he struggles to fend-off growing accusations from his own population and from increasingly impatient Western governments that he and his administration are doing little to combat corruption and the stagnant economic conditions that have continued to plague Ukraine since a civil uprising ousted the previous pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in the 2014 Euromaidan Revolution.

Kyiv had hoped the recent delivery of Javelin anti-tank missiles from the US would significantly tip the balance on the battlefield in their favour as the Javelin is the world’s most powerful portable anti-armour weapon and capable of easily destroying the T-72, T-80, and T-90 main battle tanks that Moscow has deployed to the areas it occupies in the eastern Donbass Region and Crimea.

But the US is keeping the Javelins under their watch, locked down in a secure weapons depot in west Ukraine, hundreds of kilometres from the frontline. Washington has made it clear to the Poroshenko government that the systems are strictly for defensive purposes and will no longer be under lock-and-key if Russia’s armed forces were to push beyond the current contact lines, which have remained static since mid-2015.

Since they begrudgingly agreed to provide Ukraine with sophisticated anti-tank systems – something Kyiv has pleaded for from the United States and NATO ever since Russia first invaded the country in April 2014 – the administration of US President Donald J Trump has insisted that all weapons deliveries to the Ukrainian military are strictly intended to defend against any future attempts by Russia to seize additional Ukrainian territory.

“If they (the Ukrainians) are not able to hold the line, that’s just an invitation to further advancements. What this does is that it tells the Russians very clearly that ‘You are not going to get any more without it being very costly to you’.

Trump’s administration has struggled to formulate a coherent policy towards Ukraine, particularly after the US Congress passed a bill that codified sanctions that are currently imposed against Moscow for its invasion of Crimea and the Donbass. The White House has gone along with elements of the policies of Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, but has had to balance between Trump’s inclination to improve relations with Russia and his personal affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin with realities on the ground when it comes to countering Moscow’s threat to the security structure for the whole of Europe and US longstanding commitments to NATO and its allies in the region.</s>Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made Buk missile, the Dutch Safety Board said on Tuesday in its final report on the July 2014 crash that killed all 298 aboard, Report informs referring to Russian RIA Novosti.

The long awaited findings of the board, which was not empowered to address questions of responsibility, did not specify who launched the missile.

The Board released its report on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 on Tuesday at the Gilze-Rijen air force base

The board chairman Tjibbe Joustra added that Ukrainian authorities failed to close airspace despite armed conflict in the Donbass area.
Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation says Russian-led militants have mounted 43 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past 24 hours, using artillery systems and 120mm and 82mm mortars 10 times, with no casualties among the Ukrainian servicemen. According to intelligence data, two militants are killed and three others wounded.