Ukraine : 13 troops killed in past hours, 325 in whole conflict

"13 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 19 wounded in Donetsk and Luhansk regions since Thursday evening. Since the counterterrorism operation was launched in mid-April, a total of 325 servicemen have been killed and 1,232 wounded," National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said at a news briefing in Kyiv on Friday.

According to him, militias continue mobilizing teenagers and retirees at gunpoint.
"In Horlivka, militias of the Donetsk People's Republic region are forcibly recruiting men, including 14-year-olds, explaining that in the Russian Federation passports are issued at this age. They are even mobilizing 65-year-old retirees," the spokesman said.

He said that terrorists were holding hostage almost 400 people as of Friday, including three journalists, six community leaders and officials, a judge, a lawyer, and more than 300 ordinary people. "So far, out of 842 hostages taken by terrorists since April, 446 have been released.