Kiev - Ukraine's faltering peace agreement suffered fresh setbacks Saturday when Kiev reported the death of six soldiers and accused Moscow of abetting an attack on one of its Russian consulates.
The latest fatalities in the twisting and hotly disputed zone separating Ukrainian forces from their pro-Russian foes in the separatist east add to the strains of a February truce deal designed to end one of Europe's deadliest conflicts in decades.
The 14-month war has claimed nearly 6,500 lives and turned Russian President Vladimir Putin into an increasingly isolated figure blamed for pulling a Cold War-era pall over Moscow's relations with the West.
It has also driven more than a million people from their homes and left Ukraine -- anxious to rebuild after decades of post-Soviet neglect -- without access to much of its industrial heartland and far fewer opportunities for growth.
The February accords that the leaders of Germany and France effectively forced upon Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had initially helped limit the fighting to hotspots whose status had been under dispute from the start.
But last week saw intense mortar and artillery fire return to previously quiet regions and more than 35 people die.
Western monitors said the clashes came after both sides pulled their heaviest guns up to the truce line in apparent preparation for a hot summer campaign.
Saturday's casualties bring to about 50 the number of people reported killed this month -- a figure that fails to include all the deaths suffered by the secretive and partially splintered rebel command.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said overnight fighting had been particularly heavy around the fragmented remains of the once-gleaming airport on the outskirts of the separatists' de facto capital Donetsk.
Eastern Ukraine's busiest air hub turned into a symbolic war prize that Kiev lost hundreds of soldiers defending until January. Neighbourhoods around the airport suffer continual shelling to this day.
"The situation near the airport is particularly restive," Lysenko told reporters.
"Our enemies have thrown tanks, infantry combat vehicles and artillery into battle."
Donetsk insurgents blamed Kiev for shelling the very regions mentioned by Lysenko. They also accused Poroshenko's forces of committing "99 ceasefire violations" since Friday.
AFP
