Three soldiers killed in eastern Ukraine clashes
– Pro-Russia militants also kill one civilian and wound two more, Kyiv’s military says.
KYIV, Ukraine – Three Ukrainian soldiers and one civilian were killed in clashes between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s military said Friday.
“The clashes in the past 24 hours also wounded 12 Ukrainian soldiers,” Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian presidential administration spokesman for the anti-terrorist operation told a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
The separatists launched attacks on the army positions in the eastern cities of Donetsk and Mariupol, Lysenko said, adding that they used heavy weaponry, including cannon artillery, 120mm mortars and tank shells in violation of the Minsk cease-fire agreement.
Lysenko said the pro-Russian militants also shelled the town of Avdiivka and the villages of Opytne and Vodynane, killing one civilian and wounding two others.
Ukrainian servicemen also spotted 23 flights of enemy UAVs, two more at the administration border with Crimea, and another one at the Ukraine-Russian border in Sumy region, he added.
The Feb. 12 Minsk cease-fire agreement includes the withdrawal of heavy weaponry from combat areas, and of all foreign-armed formations; release of all hostages and unlawfully detained persons as well as political reforms and decentralization in the eastern Ukrainian regions.
However, the agreement has failed to be implemented fully, with daily reports of breaches and clashes, and both parties blaming each other for violating the accord.
More than 6,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists since April 2014, according to the UN.