Pro-Russians kill 2 Ukrainian soldiers: Kyiv
Ukraine says pro-Russian armed men have killed at least two government soldiers in the troubled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
“Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed over the last day, three were injured” in the combat with pro-Russian forces, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council spokesman, Volodymyr Polyovy, said on Saturday.
“One soldier was killed by a sniper’s bullet, and one as a result of a shelling attack,” he said.
The incident was the latest escalation of violence in Donetsk since a ceasefire was declared between Kyiv and the pro-Russians last month.
Polyovy said pro-Russian fighters “continued to violate the ceasefire agreement at several locations” over the past 24 hours, including at the airport in Donetsk.
Meanwhile, some reports say that two civilians were also killed in a shelling west of Donetsk.
The pro-Russian armed men have so far not commented on the incident.
Both sides have accused each other of violating the truce since it came into effect in early September. The truce followed several months of deadly clashes in the east.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kyiv launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the protests.
Violence intensified in May after the two flashpoint regions of Donetsk and Lugansk held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine.
According to the latest report by the UN, over 3,400 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine during the past six months.
Western powers and the government in Kyiv accuse Moscow of having a hand in the crisis in eastern Ukraine, but the Kremlin denies the accusation.
YH/KA/SS