KIEV, July 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Eleven Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and another 51 wounded in the past twenty-four hours in Kiev’s military operation in the country’s east, spokesman for Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko said on Thursday.

A total of 374 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 1,485 wounded since the start of Kiev’s military operation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in mid-April.

Pro-Kiev troops and local militias in the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk 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.