Ukrainian soldier killed in east: Military
Despite a relatively stable truce with pro-Russia fighters, Ukraine’s military says it has lost a soldier in the country’s restive east.
On Wednesday, the military alleged on its Facebook page that it had come under attack by pro-Russians, who it said had targeted their positions south of the industrial town of Avdiivka.
It said two soldiers were also injured.
Conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine after people in the country’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for re-unification with Russia in March 2014. The West brands the development as Moscow’s annexation of the territory. The United States and its allies in Europe accuse Moscow of having a major hand in the crisis in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed over 8,000 lives and displaced 1.5 million.
Russia denies the charges, saying it is supporting the ethnic Russian population living in the area against what it calls the continued suppression of their rights by the Ukrainian government.
The situation exacerbated after Kiev dispatched troops to the eastern Ukrainian regions of Lugansk and Donetsk in April 2014 in an attempt to quell pro-Russians there.
A truce between Kiev and the pro-Russians came into force on September 1. The truce has largely been holding.
Apart from the recent alleged fatality, the Ukrainian army said two other soldiers had died on September 14.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said last week that he thought the war was still not over but a “real truce” had finally begun.
Back in September 2014, the representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk signed a ceasefire deal in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. However, the truce was violated on an almost daily basis by both the Ukrainian military and the pro-Russia forces. During negotiations in Minsk on February 11-12, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine reached a deal, dubbed Minsk II, on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from Ukraine’s frontlines and a ceasefire, which officially went into effect on February 14. The two sides, however, continued to engage in sporadic clashes.
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