Soldier, pro-Russian killed in Ukraine crisis

At least one government trooper and one pro-Russia fighter have been killed in separate violent incidents in Ukraine, security sources say. 

Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on Monday that a Ukrainian army soldier was killed after pro-Russia forces shelled the Ukrainian army positions near the strategically important southeastern port city of Mariupol.

Mariupol, 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 joined Russia in March 2014.

Separately, authorities from the eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics said that one of their men was killed and another wounded on Monday in fierce clashes with the Kiev government troops across the troubled regions.

Lugansk and Donetsk are the two mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine, which have witnessed fighting between pro-Moscow forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched its military offensive in spring 2014.

Since the February ceasefire agreement of Minsk, both sides have been accusing one another of violating the truce. The agreement introduced measures such as a ceasefire, which commenced on February 15, the pullout of heavy weapons, and constitutional reform in Ukraine by the end of the year.

Since the peace deal came into effect much of the fighting in Ukraine’s volatile provinces has simmered down, but the truce has failed to bring the battle to a complete halt.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on May 8 that nearly 7,000 civilians have lost their lives in the year-long conflict in eastern Ukraine. He added that more than 1,000 people were also unaccounted for.

JR/KA/HMV

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