Vladimir Zakharchenko

When student Vladimir Zakharchenko hopped onto the third carriage of a Saint Petersburg metro train on Monday, he could not have imagined that his daily commute would finish in hospital.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine staged swearing in ceremonies for their leaders on Tuesday after votes dismissed as a farce by Kiev, which says they violated terms of a peace plan to end a war that has killed more than 4,000 people.

European Union ministers sought to broker a political settlement in Ukraine after gun battles between police and anti-government protesters brought the death toll to 75 in two days of the worst violence in the country since Soviet times.

When student Vladimir Zakharchenko hopped onto the third carriage of a Saint Petersburg metro train on Monday, he could not have imagined that his daily commute would finish in hospital.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine staged swearing in ceremonies for their leaders on Tuesday after votes dismissed as a farce by Kiev, which says they violated terms of a peace plan to end a war that has killed more than 4,000 people.

European Union ministers sought to broker a political settlement in Ukraine after gun battles between police and anti-government protesters brought the death toll to 75 in two days of the worst violence in the country since Soviet times.