Fresh clashes kill four army soldiers in east Ukraine

The Ukrainian military says four of its soldiers have been killed in a fresh wave of clashes with pro-Russia forces operating in the country’s troubled east.

Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a spokesman for Kiev’s military, said on Thursday that more than a dozen troops were also wounded in the heavy clashes that took place in the volatile Lugansk region.

This came after similar clashes left at least 10 people killed and several others injured in the neighboring Donetsk region on Sunday.

Ukrainian troops have recently been engaged in fighting with pro-Russians over the control of a strategic highway linking the Kiev-held southeastern port of Mariupol with Donetsk, which is controlled by pro-Russians.

The highway’s potential capture by pro-Russia forces could allow them to step up their campaign to capture Mariupol.

Mariupol, the southeastern Sea of Azov city which is home to around 500,000 people, sits on a highway that links areas under the control of pro-Russia forces in the east and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea that rejoined Russia in March 2014.

The violence came despite a shaky truce deal signed in February, which has effectively failed to reduce the hostilities in Ukraine’s industrial heartland. The agreement, known as Minsk II, stipulates that the two sides should withdraw their heavy weaponry from the frontlines in order for the ceasefire to hold.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande are expected to meet Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko in Berlin on Monday in a bid to rescue the deal.

Reports says Russian President Vladimir Putin, may not be invited to the meeting. However, Germany on Wednesday did not rule out Putin’s participation in the negotiations.

Putin’s possible absence could be a sign of rising tensions between Russia and the Western backers of the Kiev government over the crisis in Ukraine.

The four leaders had attended the February peace talks in Minsk, Belarus, where the truce deal was signed between Kiev and pro-Russians.

Reacting to the upcoming developments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed hope that the upcoming meeting “will be instructional” for Poroshenko and result in the agreed-upon withdrawal of Ukraine’s biggest weapons from the frontline.

Also on Wednesday, Putin warned Crimean officials to be on the alert for acts of sabotage by foreign-trained elements.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of having a hand in the conflict, which has killed nearly 7,000 people since April 2014, an allegation Moscow strongly denies the charges.

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