Three killed in renewed Ukraine violence
One Ukrainian soldier and two pro-Russia fighters have been killed in renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine over the weekend.
Both sides claimed on Sunday that despite a renewed truce, corresponding with Orthodox Easter and Labor Day, the opposite side had resumed fighting, violating the ceasefire.
Pro-Russia fighters said the Ukrainian military violated the ceasefire, killing two forces from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
“As a result of shelling by Ukrainian hit squads, two servicemen of the DPR army were killed and another four suffered injuries during Easter night,” senior commander Eduard Basurin told reporters.
Pro-Russia forces also accused the Ukrainian military of shooting at territory held by the pro-Russians 160 times.
The Ukrainian side, however, claimed that one soldier was killed near the town of Svitlodarsk in the Donetsk region while seven others were wounded near the village of Avdiivka and near the city of Mariupol in fire from the opposite side.
Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said that despite the new ceasefire, pro-Russia fighters had ramped up attacks near their stronghold of Donetsk, using grenades.
The latest casualties came as the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russia forces on Friday agreed on a new truce in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, which began at midnight on the same day.
The agreement is aimed at reinforcing a deal co-signed by France and Germany in February 2015 after an upsurge in violence in the industrial east of Ukraine. It also came ahead of the Orthodox Easter Sunday and covers holidays that include Labor Day on May 1 and the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II marked on May 9.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had warned that the ceasefire violations in eastern Ukraine had reached its highest level in months.
Around 9,300 people have died and more than 21,000 have been injured in two years since Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking east made efforts to gain greater autonomy against the country’s pro-Western leadership.
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