KIEV, July 31, /ITAR-TASS/. A total of 363 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 1,434 people injured since the punitive operation in eastern Ukraine, spokesman for the National Security and Defence Council Andrei Lysenko said on Wednesday, July 30.

Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Lugansk regions are involved in fierce clashes as the Ukrainian armed forces are conducting a military operation to regain control over the breakaway regions, which on May 11 proclaimed their independence at local referendums.

During the military operation, Kiev has used armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation. Many buildings have been destroyed and tens of thousands of people have had to flee Ukraine’s embattled east.