4 killed, 24 wounded in latest east Ukraine confrontation

At least four people were killed and 24 others wounded in the past day during the confrontation between governmental troops and independence-seeking insurgents in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said Thursday.
"The situation in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions has a steady tendency to complication," Andrei Lysenko, spokesman for the National Security and Defense Council, told reporters.
He said that over the past 24 hours, four government soldiers were killed and 19 were wounded in the fighting with rebels, which concentrated in seven flashpoints of the two eastern regions.
Stanytsa Luganska, a town in Lugansk region that lies 7 km west from the border with Russia, became the hotspot in the latest battles, Lysenko said, adding that insurgents opened fire eight times over the past day in the residential area of the town.
During the shelling on the outskirts of Stanytsa Luganska, an 18-year-old girl and a 57-year-old man sustained shrapnel wounds, he said.
Meanwhile, authorities of the neighboring Donetsk region said three civilians were wounded during the fighting in Donetsk city over the past day, but there were no deaths.
The shelling damaged eight private houses and a sewage pumping station in the city, Donetsk's municipal council said.
The conflict, which erupted in eastern Ukraine in mid-April, has claimed at least 4,000 lives and injured more than 9,000 others.