Three Ukrainian soldiers killed in east

Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and another one injured as clashes with pro-Russian rebel fighters flared despite a shaky truce, Kiev’s military spokesman said Tuesday.

“The situation is still tense” in the conflict zone, spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists in Kiev. “Over the past 24 hours three Ukrainian soldiers died and one was injured in fighting.”

He said pro-Russian separatists were firing 120 and 122 millimetre calibre weapons at Ukrainian positions in violation of the battered February ceasefire agreement and that the Ukrainian military was responding to the attacks.

Despite the peace deal damping down fighting around much of the eastern conflict zone, the daily casualty tolls along the frontline with the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk “people’s republics” have been increasing in recent days, after weeks of relative calm.

According to the United Nations, the fighting in eastern Ukraine has killed over 6,200 people since last April, when Kiev launched a military operation against pro-Russian separatists.