DHAKA: Ukrainian government forces launched air strikes and artillery assaults on pro-Russian separatists in eastern regions on Tuesday, a military spokesman said, after president Petro Poroshenko announced he would not renew a ceasefire.

Poroshenko said in an early morning announcement that government forces would renew offensive operations against rebels and ‘free our lands’, hours after a ceasefire to allow for peace talks with the pro-Russian separatists had expired.

‘After the President’s speech, the ATO (Anti-Terrorist Operation) went into action. We opened artillery fire, carried out air strikes at the strategic points of the terrorists and places where they are concentrated,’ military spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkovsky was reported as saying by Interfax news agency, reports The Straits Times.

Dmytrashkovsky said rebels had fired on an SU-25 attack aircraft, damaging it, but the plane had managed to land safely at its air base.

He denied a rebel report that a military helicopter had been brought down.

BDST: 1632 HRS, JULY 01, 2014