Kiev says 2 servicemen killed in Donbass
Ukraine says two of its servicemen have been killed in a military operation in the conflict-stricken region of Donbass in the east of the country.
Andriy Lysenko, who serves as the Ukrainian presidential spokesman for the operation, said at a news briefing in Kiev on Saturday, "The operational losses for the past 24 hours are: two servicemen killed and ten others wounded."
Pro-Russia forces say Kiev has been heavily shelling the region.
The Ukrainian government forces have shelled the territory of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) nearly 160 times over the past week, said Oleh Anashchenko, the LPR people's militia department chief.
"Despite the ceasefire that has been declared, Ukrainian security forces have shelled the Luhansk people's republic territory 158 times over the past week, resulting in 24 ceasefire violations," Anashchenko told journalists on Saturday.
Kiev started its military crackdown on pro-Russians in the east of the country in 2014.
The first internationally mediated ceasefire signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, dubbed the Minsk Protocol, was signed on September 5 the same year between Kiev and representatives of the pro-Russia forces who had control over the major eastern cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Violations of the ceasefire on both sides led to renewed heavy fighting across the conflict zone, which resulted in a new ceasefire called Minsk II, on February 12, 2015, signed by the warring sides in addition to Russia and Ukraine, along with Germany and France. Violations of the second ceasefire by both sides still continue.
According to the United Nations, over 9,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict since April 2014.
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