KIEV: Ukraine on Friday reported its first combat death since a new ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels went into effect on September 1.
“In the past day, as a result of military activities, one of our soldiers died and two were wounded,” Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters.
Lysenko said rebels attacked in the flashpoint town of Mariinka, which straddles the buffer zone between the warring sides’ forces.
Ukraine had previously reported the accidental death of two soldiers in incidents involving a tripwire and one of the many landmines that litter the former Soviet republic’s devastated eastern industrial war zone.
Lysenko added that the rebels had also violated the truce by shelling the vicinity of Mariupol, a government-held port city often targeted because it provides a land bridge between separatist-held regions and Russian-annexed Crimea.
The insurgents on Wednesday claimed the death of one its fighters, although Kiev has insisted it had respected the truce, even when under fire.
The warring sides agreed their latest truce on August 26 in Minsk — the Belarussian capital where a February 2015 peace deal was signed with the help of the leaders of Germany and France.
