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Women residents pass by a group of the Ukrainian government army soldiers in the village of Debaltseve, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine Wednesday, Dec 24, 2014. Peace talks aimed at reaching a stable cease-fire in Ukraine between its government forces and pro-Russian armed groups began on Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus, with the discussions to include a pullout of heavy weapons and an exchange of war prisoners.

Image: AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov

By Christopher Miller2014-12-27 17:29:08 UTC

Ukrainians were on high alert on Saturday after a series of explosions occurred in the south and west of the country, killing two people.

One person was killed in a blast overnight in the southern port city of Odessa, according to local police officials. Later, an explosion occurred in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, killing one man, authorities said.

The injuries sustained by the unidentified victim in Odessa indicate that he had dealt with explosives, Volodymyr Shabliyenko, a spokesperson for the Odessa regional police department, wrote on Facebook. In a separate post later, he said a probe had been opened into the terrorist act.

The following video shows the scene in Odessa after the explosion:

Kherson police said the blast there occurred before noon, local time, on Saturday after a man wearing an explosive device entered the currency exchange and detonated it, killing himself. No one else was injured.

Meanwhile, in Lviv, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at the home of the citys mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, a prominent official whose party placed third in parliamentary elections in October, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, citing Svitlana Dobrovolska, a spokesperson for the Interior Ministry's branch in Lviv region.

No one was injured in the Lviv attack, as Sadovyi was away on vacation. A similar incident occurred at the mayor's home on July 26. Footage from a security camera caught the blast amid a snowstorm.

Continued here:
Two dead after Ukraine rocked by series of blasts