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Fighting in eastern Ukraine leaves 2 soldiers dead

Sunday, 12 July 2015 2:04 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 12 July 2015 2:04 PM ]

This photo shows Ukrainian soldiers in a bunker near the frontline with pro-Russia forces in Krymske village, Lugansk region, on June 25, 2015. ©AFP

Kiev says two of its soldiers have been killed and five others wounded in heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine.

A military spokesman said Sunday that pro-Russia forces have been heavily shelling government positions in the region.

"We have lost two soldiers in fighting and acts of provocation, five have been wounded," Ukrainian Army spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, told reporters.

Lysenko accused the pro-Russia forces of using "on 10 occasions artillery over 100 mm caliber" despite a truce agreement forbidding the use of such weaponry.

According to the Minsk peace deal signed about five months ago, all heavy weaponry from both sides was to be withdrawn from the frontline.

The military spokesman added that the firing came from the area around Donetsk airport, which has been under the the control of pro-Russia forces since January.

Firing also came from the village of Trokhizbenka in Lugansk, he added.

On the other side of the conflict, the pro-Russia forces accused Kiev of "mass firing" on the city of Donetsk's Kievsky district, close to the airport.

In a report published late Saturday, the European Union monitoring mission in eastern Ukraine reported "617 ceasefire violations at and around the Donetsk airport."

In a separate report published last week, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) accused government forces of violating the terms of the demarcation line by deploying heavy arms to eastern Ukraine.

Speaking at a news briefing in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol on July 4, OSCE Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug warned that the heavy weaponry moved to the government-controlled side of the Donbass region by Kiev’s security forces is deteriorating security conditions in the area.

“We can highlight that the security situation has gotten worse in the Donbass over the past few weeks,” Hug said as quoted in a Saturday report by RT, adding, “In the last few weeks, our observers as well as drones recorded the presence of heavy weapons in areas controlled by the government, which is a violation of the demarcation line terms regarding the withdrawal of heavy weaponry.”