Death toll mounts in E.Ukraine amid rising tensions

At least two people were killed and four others wounded in eastern Ukraine in the past day amid rising military tensions between government troops and pro-independence rebels, reports showed Monday.

"The rebels have increased their military activity in the combat area," Oleksander Motuzyanik, a military spokesman for the government's military operation in the east, told reporters.

He said that over the past day, one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and three wounded as a result of the fighting, in which insurgents deployed tanks and mortars -- the weapons which should have been withdrawn from the frontline.

Earlier in the day, the self-styled defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said in a statement that there had been 51 violations of the ceasefire by government troops in the past day, including six attacks with the use of heavy weapons.

One insurgent fighter was killed and another one wounded in the attacks, the statement said.

The complete halt of hostilities and full withdrawal of heavy weapons from the combat area are part of a peace plan agreed in Minsk, capital of Belarus, on Feb. 12 to pave the way for a solution to the Ukraine crisis.

The conflict in the country's eastern regions, which started in April 2014, has killed over 6,100 people and wounded more than 15,400 others, according to the latest United Nations estimates. Endi