I am a Staff Writer for Newsweek's international desk the former Soviet Union and the former Eastern Bloc either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content 22 Russian tanks crossed into Ukraine's separatist-held eastern territories over the weekend, as pro-Moscow forces continue to seep into Ukraine's war-stricken Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Donetsk's local pro-government officials reported yesterday In a statement published on Donetsk's regional government website the deputy head of Ukraine's anti-separatist military operations in Donetsk and Luhansk Valentin Fechev condemned the "cynical lies" of pro-Russian fighters who have accused Ukraine of violating the ceasefire between the two sides and instead gave a recent recap of Russian violations Fechev told the regional government website that 22 tanks had crossed from Russia via the border town of Gukovo heading toward the city of Sverdlovsk for maintenance On Sunday night 15 separatist Grad missiles were fired at the Ukrainian city of Horlivka The Donetsk administration explains that pro-Russian fighters had received 122mm Grad missiles as part of one of Russia's so called "humanitarian convoys" which continue to arrive in the rebel-held regions According to the local administration the pro-Russian rebels underwent military exercises several days prior in the town of Yenakiieve using heavy artillery and guns with the aim of eventually stationing them in the town of Horlivka Fechev said that fighters as well as equipment crossed the border from Russia to Ukraine last weekend claiming that more than 800 Russian mercenary fighters had entered Ukraine to fight over the last few days He went on to say that these fighters are there for "the gain of personal wealth" rather than being motivated by the idea of resurrecting a 'New Russia' (Novorossiya) in Ukraine He estimates that of those 800 Russian fighters 200 were Russian Cossacks who had entered Ukraine with small arms "to die for Russian money" last week and 600 were "mercenaries" who appeared to be from Russia's Siberian Buryat region A group of Russian Chechen fighters has also been tracked in the region by Ukrainian authorities who claim the group looted nearby scrap storage facilities last week Fechev pointed out that they do not represent the "liberty-loving Chechen people" but were rather Kadyrovtsi - a word used to describe the fighters of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov who is a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin Fechev also added that these new arrivals from Russia were necessary as locals to Donetsk and Luhansk had largely not opted to join the separatist cause estimating that rebel mobilisation efforts were only 10-15% successful A survey published by Ukrainian agency Interfax today which surveyed over 2,000 citizens of Donetsk and Luhansk found that 45% of residents admitted they did not have enough to eat while 63% said life was "difficult but [they] would make do" Russia is frequently forced to deny that it is sending military equipment or personnel to Ukraine, despite evidence that they are. Rebel leader Alexander Zaharchenko estimated in August that there are as many as 4,000 Russian soldiers fighting under him in Donetsk however added that they were there on a voluntary basis out of personal solidarity for the pro-Russian cause "We also have Russian soldiers here who would rather spend their holidays not on the beach but fighting for the freedom of their brothers," he added Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all Report says over 20,000 injured since start of war last year but ceasefire in August has contributed to sharp decline in casualties More than 9,000 people have died in 21 months of fighting in eastern Ukraine even as a new ceasefire has largely held and contributed to a sharp decline in casualties since mid-August A report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said 9,098 people including combatants and civilians have died in the conflict since April last year The total is up from 7,883 in the previous quarterly report released in September a senior UN official involved in the report said the increases were due to counts made by the Ukrainian interior and defence ministries not numbers killed between the two reports “We tried to bring the figures … in line with available information at the present time,” he said The report said a “ceasefire within a ceasefire” agreed in late August and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from frontlines had calmed violence between government forces and pro-Russian separatists But it cautioned that skirmishes in early November had fanned fears of a possible resumption of shelling of population centres Magazzeni said: “There remain a large number of unidentified bodies in morgues especially in the areas controlled by armed groups.” Since the report’s cutoff date of 15 November six people have been killed and 21 have been wounded The easing of tensions comes after a particularly violent period from mid-May to mid-August The new report said the Ukrainian government had applied some provisions of an accord struck in Minsk “After more than 9,000 people have lost their lives is very welcome,” said the UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al-Hussein “I urge all sides to fully implement the Minsk agreements and to actively work to ensure the application of the rule of law and international human rights norms everywhere in Ukraine.” The Kremlin has limited control over pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region according to Russian president Vladimir Putin's aide Dmitry Peskov the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic currently control large swathes of land in the area Speaking to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet Peskov denied reports made by Ukraine and Kiev's western partners that the Russian-speaking forces in Ukraine's east which consist of a number of Russian army servicemen "Contrary to what is said by NATO and by European countries the militants in Donbas are not our puppets," Peskov said but he can not tell them to lay down their arms." The clause that separatist forces in Donbas should lay down their arms was in the agreement signed by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko Putin and representatives of the two rebel groups in Minsk However, fighting did not stop, and the agreed ceasefire began as violence escalated near the railway town of Debaltseve, where separatist rebels mounted an offensive holding Russia responsible for the actions of the rebels in Ukraine's east is part of a wider campaign intended to "demonize Putin and blame him for everything" "This situation hurts be personally because no matter what we do you will find people who will not listen to us," Peskov added Peskov also criticised the toppling of Ukraine's pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych who was deposed over a year ago in the pro-EU movement that came to be known as the Euromaidan revolution Peskov reiterated the Kremlin party line that Yanukovych had been toppled by a "coup prepared abroad" we can say that he was an elected president and this is totally unacceptable," Peskov said There has been mounting evidence, from both within Russia and elsewhere, that Russian servicemen are present and operating in Ukraine. In August last year, the Russian organisation Soldiers' Mothers estimated that around 15,000 Russian soldiers had likely been sent to fight in Ukraine under the guise of being volunteers