Another Soldier Killed In Eastern Ukraine, Holiday Cease-Fire Planned
By RFE/RL
Ukraine's military said on December 22 that one of its soldiers was killed and two wounded in the previous 24 hours in the eastern part of the country.
A Defense Ministry statement said that Russia-backed separatists violated a frequently breached cease-fire 16 times using snipers, machine guns, and mortars.
Separatists, meanwhile, claimed that government forces violated the cease-fire 28 times using assault rifles, grenade launchers, mortars, and artillery.
Fighting between Kyiv's forces and the Russia-backed separatists who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions has killed more than 10,300 people since April 2014.
Cease-fire deals announced as part of the Minsk accords -- September 2014 and February 2015 pacts aimed to resolve the conflict -- have failed to hold.
Rights groups and Western officials have voiced alarm about a recent increase in hostilities.
A new cease-fire agreed ahead of the holiday season was set to begin at midnight between December 22 and 23.
With reporting by Interfax and TASS
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