Two Killed In Spike Of Violence In Ukraine Separatist East

Two people have been killed and two injured in recent incidents between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's war-torn east, Kiev said Wednesday

Kiev, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Feb, 2021 ) :Two people have been killed and two injured in recent incidents between government forces and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's war-torn east, Kiev said Wednesday.

The latest casualties came as Kiev accused Moscow and the separatists of using heavy weaponry and ramping up attacks in violation of a ceasefire agreed in July last year.

In one incident, mortar fire killed one soldier and wounded another Tuesday near the village of Zaytseve north of Donetsk, the separatists' de facto capital, Ukraine's defence ministry reported.

In a separate incident the same day, another soldier was wounded near Pisky, also in the Donetsk region, the ministry added.

In a third incident Tuesday, one civilian was killed when a mine exploded in his courtyard in the neighbouring Lugansk region, the military said separately.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Earlier this month three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in clashes with separatists and three others died in a mine blast.

The fierce fighting that erupted after Moscow's takeover of Crimea has claimed more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN, but the number of new fatalities has been decreasing in recent years.

Kiev says 50 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in 2020, half as many as the year before.

Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Russia of sending troops and arms to support the separatists, claims Moscow denies.