Kiev--Six soldiers were killed and 12 injured in separatist-held east Ukraine in the last 24 hours as a fresh flare-up of fighting rattles a shaky ceasefire, Kiev's military said Tuesday.
The situation in the conflict zone "remains unstable", with "armed provocations by the enemy continuing on almost all sides," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
The deaths, the highest toll in the last 10 days, come as the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France expressed "grave concern" over surging violations of the February ceasefire.
The top diplomats from the four countries held talks in Berlin overnight to evaluate the status of the truce deal aimed at ending a year of fighting that has killed more than 6,000 people.
Lysenko said separatist insurgents used 120mm mortars and 122mm canons against the army despite an agreement under the ceasefire to withdraw all such weaponry from the frontline.
The heaviest fighting took place around the airport of the rebel bastion of Donetsk, a city once home to a million people in the industrial east.
Another hotspot was Shyrokyne, on the outskirts of the strategic port city of Mariupol, the last major city still in government hands in the rebel east.
Russian TV network Zvezda, which is controlled by the defence ministry, said one of its journalists was badly injured there after stepping on a landmine.
The accident occurred as monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) visited the village.
AFP
