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2 killed in E. Ukraine Clashes

Xinhua, May 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

The running clashes between government troops and pro-independence insurgents in eastern Ukraine have killed at least two people and wounded six others over the past 24 hours, reports said Monday.

Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ukrainian government's military operation against insurgents, said that one Ukrainian soldier was killed and five others were wounded during the hostilities.

Lysenko said that the fighting has lessened across Lugansk region and in northern Donetsk region, while the outskirts of the government-controlled southern port city of Mariupol have witnessed the upsurge in violence.

"The enemy has used 122 millimeter caliber artillery and 120 millimeter caliber mortars to attack our positions near Shyrokyne village in Mariupol direction," Lysenko said.

Eduard Basurin, a senior insurgent commander, confirmed that Shyrokyne was the epicenter of the previous day's fighting, accusing the Ukrainian army of launching an assault near the coastal village against the insurgents, using heavy weapons.

Basurin said that one soldier from the insurgent forces was killed and another one wounded in clashes with government troops.

Hostilities in eastern Ukraine rose after Alexey Mozgovoy, one of the top insurgent commanders, was killed on Saturday after his car came under fire allegedly from the Ukrainian army.

Overall, the 13-month-old conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed almost 7,000 lives, according to the latest Ukrainian government estimates. Endi