[Rocky_Shorz]

Those killed include Gen Gennady Troshev, a former commander of Russian forces in Chechnya and military advisor to former Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fall of Ukraine

Ukraine's governing coalition collapsed on Tuesday in a crisis that threatens to knock the ex-Soviet country of 47 million people off its pro-Western course and back into Moscow's orbit.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said his country's young democracy was resilient and would not accept any interference from Moscow in a crisis sparked by Russia's war with Georgia last month.

"I officially announce the collapse of the coalition of democratic forces," parliament speaker Arseny Yatsenyuk told lawmakers.

"I would not call this an apocalypse. It is a challenge for democracy, but I hope we will overcome this challenge together," he said.

The political crisis began when Yushchenko pulled his Our Ukraine party out of the coalition on September 3 after Tymoshenko sided with the pro-Moscow opposition to pass new laws rolling back the president's powers.

Yushchenko bitterly described the vote against him as a bid by Tymoshenko to establish a "dictatorship" and complained of a parliamentary "coup."

Tymoshenko in turn accused the president of having "destroyed" the governing coalition by pulling out of the alliance with her party.