Ukraine: Rebels used long-range artillery on villages, 1 soldier dead

The Ukrainian military accused Russian-backed rebels of conducting long-range artillery attacks on villages in the east and said one of its serviceman was killed and 12 wounded in clashes in the past 24 hours.

Kiev’s military spokesman Andriy Lysenko did not say where the casualties had occurred, but said that sporadic fighting continued near the rebel-controlled airport complex in Donetsk despite a ceasefire declared last February, Euronews reported on Tuesday.

The villages of Yasnogorodivka and Pervomaisk and the outskirts of Gorlivka further north had been hit, he said.

The separatists did not respond to Kiev’s charges. DAN, the rebel website, said on Tuesday one civilian had been killed by Ukrainian military shelling in the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk.

Both sides accuse the other of regularly violating the ceasefire deal signed in Minsk, Belarus, and a surge in violence in the past few weeks has caused international monitors to warn of a threat of a wider escalation.