Ukrainian soldier killed in clashes amid shaky truce

A truce appears to be broadly taken hold in eastern Ukraine with one killing reported in the previous day in sporadic clashes between government troops and pro-independence rebels, military authorities said Monday.

After two days without confirmed combat death, one Ukrainian soldier was killed and four others were wounded in the past 24 hours, said government military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.

The warring sides have traded accusation over violation of the ceasefire, which came into force on Feb. 15.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a statement that insurgents have carried out 32 attacks on government positions in the past day, using small weapons, grenade launchers and artillery.

Meanwhile, the rebel-run Novorossia news agency said that overnight Kiev forces violated the truce 10 times.

There were no reports on civilian or rebel casualties in the previous 24 hours.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has eased significantly last week, after the warring sides started the withdrawal of their heavy weapons from the frontline under the terms of a truce deal reached on Feb. 12 in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

Earlier in the day, the United Nations Human Rights Office said in a report that it estimated the number of those killed in the eastern Ukraine conflict, which has raged since April 2014, at over 6,000. Endi