(VOVworld) -  Combat casualties rose in Eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, just a few hours prior to the 4-party talks in Paris of the Normandy Quartet- Ukraine, Russia, France, and Germany- seeking a resolution for the Ukraine crisis which began more than a year ago. Insurgent forces condemned the Kiev government for attacks that killed 3 civilians. The Kiev government said one of their soldiers died in some of the fiercest shelling since the beginning of the year which targeted a relatively peaceful region in the East. The continuing bloodshed and destruction of a conflict that has already claimed 6500 lives has brought east-west relations to their lowest level since the Cold War.