The Ukrainian military has released a statement that two soldiers were killed and four were wounded in shelling by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Saturday, where violence this week has ignited fears it could trigger Russian military action.
The Ukrainian military said, “It had reported over 70 ceasefire violations by separatists since the beginning of the day as compared to 66 cases in the last 24 hours.”
The military has released a statement that separatists have opened fire on more than 30 settlements along the front line using heavy artillery, which has been prohibited by agreements aimed at cooling the long-running conflict.
A group of lawmakers and foreign media visiting the conflict zone came under fire and had to be evacuated to a shelter, a spokesperson for President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s party said in a separate statement on Saturday.
Separatist officials accused Ukraine of shelling separatist-controlled areas and said they had to respond accordingly.
In what the Ukrainian government called a provocation, incidents of shelling across the line divided government forces and separatists increased sharply this week. It strongly denied suggestions by Russia that Kyiv could launch an offensive in eastern Ukraine.