This concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Monday, April 13. Check back here tomorrow morning for more of our continuing coverage.
Foreign ministers meet in Berlin to discuss Ukraine conflict
Kiev/Berlin (dpa) - The foreign ministers of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany were meeting Monday in Berlin to review the progress made in implementing the Ukraine peace deal reached some two months ago.
A "degree of calm" had been achieved in eastern Ukraine but it was "too early to give the all clear," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before the talks got underway.
The ministers are to discuss improving humanitarian supply lines into contested areas, restarting prisoner exchanges and preparing for the local elections that were agreed to under the deal signed in Belarus.
The meeting follows fresh violence between the pro-Russian rebels and government troops.
Four separatists were injured in fighting with government forces around Donetsk airport and the region east of the port city of Mariupol, separatist spokesman Eduard Basurin said according to news reports.
The Ukrainian Security Council said that one soldier was killed and six were injured during the past 24 hours.
Speaking in Kiev, Council spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk accused the separatists of violating the ceasefire by attacking government positions with heavy artillery.
The separatists carried out more than 20 attacks with large caliber weapons and tanks, Motuzyanyk said according to an official transcript.
Basurin accused the Ukrainian military of violating the ceasefire with "provocative attacks."
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors the ceasefire, expressed dismay at the violence.
The organization's chief monitor in Ukraine, Ertugrul Apakan, called upon all sides to exercise restraint.
Violence escalates in east Ukraine ahead of talks
KIEV, April 13 (Reuters) -- Ukraine's military accused pro-Russian rebels on Monday of using heavy weapons that were meant to have been withdrawn under a ceasefire deal, after one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and six wounded in rebel-held territories.
With fighting intensifying once more, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany were due to meet in Berlin later on Monday to discuss the next steps in implementing a ceasefire agreement signed in the Belarussian capital Minsk in February.
"The rebels have not stopped firing at Ukrainian positions ... Over the past day, the enemy has used weapons banned under the Minsk agreements," Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said in a televised briefing.
Under the deal, weapons bigger than 100 mm calibre, including heavy artillery and powerful rocket systems, are meant to have been withdrawn from the front line.
Motuzyanyk said rebels had fired at government troops multiple times with 120-122 mm weapons.
Meanwhile separatist officials accused government troops of firing tank and artillery rounds repeatedly at rebel positions, the separatist news agency DAN reported.
It also quoted senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin as saying two local journalists had been wounded by Ukrainian firing around Pisky, near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire deal, also reported a sharp spike in hostilities over the weekend.