Pro-Russian militants stand guard at a checkpoint on the road between Lugansk and Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on July 9, 2014. Rebel strongholds in eastern Ukraine braced for more fighting on July 9 as European leaders prepared to pile new pressure on President Petro Poroshenko for a truce with pro-Russian separatists. In Lugansk — one of two regional capitals still held by the insurgents — the streets were deserted and an AFP team heard regular artillery fire to the north of the city with shooting seeming to be focused around the rebels’ military headquarters. AFP PHOTO / DOMINIQUE FAGET