New clashes in eastern Ukraine leave two dead

At least two people were killed and four others were wounded amid fresh clashes between government troops and pro-independence rebels in eastern Ukraine over the last 24 hours, reports showed Monday.

A Ukrainian soldier died and three others were wounded in the clashes, which raged along the entire front line, except some areas in Lugansk region, said Andriy Lysenko, a government military spokesman.

Two frontier villages in Donetsk region, namely Granitnoe and Shyrokyno in the direction of the port city of Mariupol, were the flashpoints of the confrontation, Lysenko added.

Meanwhile, Eduard Basurin, a senior rebel commander, said a civilian was killed and another one was wounded near Shyrokyno late Sunday when their car came under shelling allegedly from the Ukrainian army.

The warring sides in eastern Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of continuing attacks and breaching a truce deal reached last month in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

The agreement, which covers a ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line and prisoner exchange, brought a relative lull to the conflict that has raged in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. Endi