Ukraine warned: 2015 will not be easy

Ukrainian separatists carried out sporadic attacks on government forces as the New Year began, wounding three soldiers, the Kiev military said, as President Petro Poroshenko told the nation to brace for a year that would “not be easy”.

The military said rebels had carried out several mortar and small arms attacks on Ukrainian positions in the east. Local authorities in Luhansk region, bordering Russia, said rebel mortar fire had destroyed two homes in a village on Thursday, killing one civilian.

There was no confirmation of these reports from the rebels.

“New Year’s night in the zone of the anti-terrorist operation was not a quiet one,” a statement by the military said. “Over the past 24 hours three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded as a result of shelling,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists. More than 4,700 people were killed in 2014 in eastern Ukraine.