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Self-proclaimed Donetsk republic plans to run trains to Kiev, Kharkiv by end of this week

DONETSK, September 29. /ITAR-TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) is planning to launch passenger trains to the capital Kiev and the second-largest city of Kharkiv in the coming days, the DPR transport ministry’s press service said on Monday.

“By the end of this week or in the beginning of next week, we are planning to open a line for Kiev and Kharkiv,” the ministry’s spokesman said.

The railway traffic from the Donetsk train station was restored on September 25. In particular, a train has been launched to take passengers from Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, to Sevastopol, in Crimea.

The traffic from this station had been disrupted since August 12 over ruined railway infrastructure as a result of an armed conflict in the region between government troops and self-defense militias.

The total death toll from the Ukrainian conflict has reached 3,543 people, including the MH17 flight victims, Ivan Simonovic, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said last week.