The Ukrainian military said that four soldiers were killed in shelling it blamed on Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country on Friday, further undermining a ceasefire brokered last year.
Ukraine this month called on European allies to intervene to halt an uptick in violence between its army and separatist fighters who broke away from Kiev in 2014 when the Kremlin annexed the Crimean peninsula.
The increase in fighting has raised fears over a fresh outbreak of heavy fighting after a ceasefire brokered last July between Kiev and the separatists ushered in several months of relative calm.
The Ukrainian army said the four servicemen were killed when separatist fighters opened fire with mortars and grenades near the village of Shumy north of the separatist’s de facto capital Donetsk.
As a result of shelling “four soldiers from the Joint Forces were killed and two were injured,” the army said in a statement posted on Facebook.
The skirmish brings the total number of Ukrainian servicemen killed since fresh fighting broke out again in mid-February to 16 as Kiev accuses Moscow and separatists of using banned military hardware.
The fighting has claimed more than 13,000 lives since 2014, according to the United Nations, but the number of new deaths has fallen in recent years.
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