Artur Galtsov survived the bombs and bullets on the frontline in east Ukraine but after returning home the army volunteer faced another battle -- overcoming his horrifying memories.

Haunted by the recollection of seeing two comrades blown apart before his eyes in fighting with pro-Russian rebels, Galtsov, 24, got drunk one day and jumped from a third-floor window in a bid to end his life.

Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a landmine blast in the war-torn separatist east, Kiev said Monday, as clashes between government forces and pro-Russian insurgents rumbled on after more than two months of relative calm.

Over the last 24 hours a "radio-controlled landmine" laid by the rebels blew up some 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of insurgent stronghold Lugansk killing the three servicemen, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

A monument commemorating the millions of Ukrainians who died during a Soviet-era famine was unveiled in the U.S. capital Saturday, in a ceremony that brought back horrific memories for survivors.

"It's terrible, I will never forget," 90-year-old Alla Gromow, in a wheelchair, said as she recalled how neighbors engaged in cannibalism in a desperate bid to stay alive.

Ukrainian armed forces and pro-Russian insurgents on Thursday exchanged 20 prisoners in a goodwill gesture designed to get peace talks aimed at ending the 18-month crisis back on track.

The swap took weeks to organize and was the first of its kind since September 8.

A Ukrainian soldier has been killed in a rebel attack near the ruins of Donetsk airport as clashes have intensified at the key flashpoint, a Ukrainian military spokesman said Tuesday.

It was the first death in fighting reported by the Ukrainian army since mid-October as a fragile truce has dampened down most of the violence that claimed over 8,000 lives in the past 18 months.

Western-backed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's fragile ruling coalition faced a major survival test Sunday in local elections that were instantly marred as voting was canceled in the strategic port of Mariupol.

Polling stations opened across all Kiev-administered regions accept for Mariupol -- a southeastern city of nearly 500,000 that provides a land bridge between pro-Moscow rebel regions and Ukraine's Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula.

Three portraits of former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin are on display in the center of Donetsk, the rebel capital of eastern Ukraine, as the separatist authorities fuel a mood of Soviet nostalgia.

The portraits, adorning a main square, seem to go down well with one young woman walking past.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders on Friday accused Russia of "sowing confusion" about the fate of flight MH17 by constantly criticizing a final report into the disaster.

"I get the impression that the Russians at this point are not really that interested in the final report, but rather in sowing confusion (about it)," Dutch media quoted Koenders saying ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting in The Hague.

Ukraine on Wednesday reported its first military fatality from pro-Russian rebel fire in a month as a fragile new truce in the separatist east faced one of its biggest tests to date.

The military in Kiev said the rebels shot at positions south of Avdiivka -- a northern suburb of the separatists self-declared proclaimed capital Donetsk.

Air crash investigators concluded Tuesday that Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made BUK missile fired from war-torn eastern Ukraine last year killing all 298 people on board.

Even though the Dutch-led inquiry did not say who pulled the trigger, Russian officials were already disputing the findings set to further degrade strained ties between Moscow and the West.