Three Ukrainian soldiers and two civilians were killed in Donbas, four soldiers were injured and one was taken captive on the weekend of May 30 - June 1, according to official reports.
The Ukrainian military press center reported shelling and attacks by the Russia-backed separatists forces over the weekend in violation of the cease-fire agreement signed in Minsk in February.
The attacks took place on the eve of the Trilateral Contact Group’s meeting on the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbas that is held on June 2 in Minsk.
Three Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Ukraine’s east on May 31, military press officer Andriy Lysenko said on June 1.
Two of them were killed during clashes with Russia-backed separatists near Maryinka, a village in Donbas Oblast.
One more serviceman was killed in a fighting near Troyitske village in Luhansk Oblast, according to the Presidential Administration spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk.
According to Lysenko, four soldiers were injured on May 31. Also, one Ukrainian soldier was taken captive on May 31 near Maryinka, according to Ilya Kiva, deputy head of Donetsk Oblast police.
Hennadiy Moskal, who heads the Kyiv-appointed military-civilian administration of the Luhansk Oblast, reported on his website that a grenade, set up on land, near Stanytsya Luganska, killed a civilian man and his underage son.
The village is controlled by Ukrainian forces.
The war in Donbas has taken 6,417 lives, according to the latest report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, published on June 1.
Also, at least 15,962 people were injured the war between April 2014 and May 30, 2015.
The United Nations noted that the actual figures could be higher than officially recorded.
On the morning of June 2, Ukrainian military press office said that Kremlin-led separatists have been shelling Ukrainian positions the whole night.
According to the report, militants used mortars, heavy machine guns and grenade launchers, as well as the heavy artillery that was banned by the Minsk agreement.
As soon as Ukrainian forces started to fire back, the separatists requested a cease-fire.Ukrainian servicemen have spotted enemy’s drones flying 15 times in the direction of Luhansk and Mariupol, the report adds.
Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected]
