Shelling in east Ukraine kills 1, injures 5

The Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in Ukraine says shelling by Ukrainian forces has killed one of its troopers and injured five others near the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

The ministry said Wednesday that the casualties occurred when Kiev government forces targeted the area of Shirokino, located some 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of Mariupol.

According to the ministry, Ukrainian government forces fired 15 shells from self-propelled weapons.

Officials also accused the Ukrainian troops of violating the ongoing ceasefire 50 times over the past 24 hours, using tanks, armored vehicles and various weaponry, including anti-tank guided missiles, mortars, grenade launchers and small arms.

A number of areas were targeted, including the Donetsk airport, and the settlements of Spartak, Gorlovka, Zhabichevo, Tavricheskoye, Golmovsky and Nikolayevka.

The shelling came a day after six Ukrainian government soldiers were killed and 12 others injured during clashes with pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian military spokesman said the heaviest fighting took place in areas around the city of Donetsk.

Also on Tuesday, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said its Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine had witnessed an escalation of violence in the country in recent days.

The fighting comes despite a truce deal inked between Kiev and pro-Russia forces in Minsk, Belarus, in February. Since then, both sides have, on numerous occasions, accused each other of violating the truce.

German, French, Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers, namely Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, Pavlo Klimkin and Sergei Lavrov, met on Tuesday in the German capital, Berlin, to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

The top diplomats, whose countries form a group known as the Normandy Four, expressed grave concerns over the violations of the deal, with Steinmeier saying, “We must ensure that the ceasefire is respected a lot more comprehensively than it was in recent days.”

Since the start of Kiev’s military operation in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, over 6,100 people have died while nearly 15,500 have been injured, according to the UN.

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