More deaths reported in east Ukraine despite truce

Fresh fighting in the east over the past 24 hours has left three more Ukrainian soldiers dead, security officials in Kiev said on Saturday.

The announcement brought to seven the total number of Ukrainian troops killed in the troubled area on Friday.

The development comes amid reports of bombardments near Donetsk International Airport early Saturday.

Meanwhile, Donetsk city council officials said five civilians, including two children, have been killed in shelling in the city of Horlivka, northern Donetsk region, late Friday.

The officials also said that a further 12 people were wounded in the shelling.

Kiev and the pro-Russians inked a truce pact in early September aimed at putting an end to heavy clashes in Ukraine’s eastern provinces, but the fighting continues unabated.

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia activists and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to silence the pro-Russians in mid-April.

Violence intensified in May after the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held local referendums in which their residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Ukraine. The move followed a similar voting in the Crimean Peninsula that saw the rejoin re-join Russia during a referendum.

According to the latest figures by the United Nations, more than 4,000 people have been killed and around 10,000 others injured over the past months of conflict between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russians.

Source: PressTV