One Ukrainian Soldier Killed, Three Wounded In East Ukraine

The Ukrainian military says that one soldier has been killed and three wounded over the previous 24 hours in the country's east despite a six-week-old cease-fire with Russian-backed rebels.

Colonel Andriy Lysenko, spokesman of Ukrainian armed forces fighting the separatists, said on March 30 neither tanks nor artillery were used over that period.

But he said the situation remained tense in the towns of Shyrokyne and Hranitne, near the key government-held city of Mariupol in the Donetsk region, and in the Luhansk region town of Tryokhizbenka.

He said rebels forces fired at Ukrainian units in or near those towns.

More than 6,000 people have been killed since April 2014 in the conflict between government forces and the rebels, who hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including their capitals.

Fighting has eased under a cease-fire agreement signed in February, but prospects for a settlement are clouded by disputes over the European-brokered deal.

With reporting by UNIAN and Interfax