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Ukraine soldier killed as clashes intensify in volatile east

Friday, 05 February 2016 2:27 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 05 February 2016 4:17 PM ]

This photo taken on December 22, 2015 shows a Ukrainian soldier on the outskirts of the a village in the Donetsk region. (AFP)

A Ukrainian soldier has been killed and three others wounded amid escalation of clashes between government troops and pro-Russia forces in the country's restive east.

"Over the past 24 hours, as a result of hostilities one Ukrainian soldier was killed and another three were wounded," Ukraine's military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters on Friday.

The soldier was reportedly killed in a mortar attack in the village of Zaitseve, 55 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Donetsk.

Lysenko added that fighting along the front "has escalated" hugely, claiming that the pro-Russians had violated a shaky ceasefire 81 times since Thursday.

For their part, pro-Russia forces said that government forces had sharply increased the number of their ceasefire violations.

Under international supervision, the two warring sides had pledged to honor a ceasefire agreement that had been reached in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in February 2015 and renewed in September.

Kiev and the pro-Russia forces repeatedly accuse each other of breaching the terms of the internationally-monitored truce.

More than 9,000 people have been killed in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk since the conflict started in April 2014.

The United States and its European allies have imposed a number of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures. Moscow has retaliated with sanctions of its own.

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