Ukrainian government forces report heavy losses in east Ukraine

The Ukrainian army on Wednesday said it suffered its highest daily losses in conflict with independence-seeking insurgents in the country's eastern regions since mid-February.

"In the past day, three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and five others wounded as the result of hostilities," said Andriy Lysenko, a government military spokesman, at a news briefing held here.

The casualties came as insurgents used heavy weapons in their attacks. Heavy weapons are banned under Minsk ceasefire agreement.

"The enemy is actively deploying heavy weapons -- every second shot was targeted and fired from mortars. According to our statistics, yesterday, about 70 mortar shots were fired at our positions," Lysenko said.

The defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic in the east Ukraine refuted the allegation, claiming that the Ukrainian army violated the ceasefire regime 56 times in the previous 24 hours, keeping shelling rebel positions with heavy weapons.

Earlier in the day, Martin Sajdik, who represents the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the Contact Group on Ukraine crisis, said that situation in the conflict zone escalated this month as both warring parties started using heavy weapons in fighting.

The crisis in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014, when the government forces launched offensives against insurgents in a bid to retake the cities and towns seized by the insurgents. The conflict has claimed more than 9,000 lives and injured more than 21,000 others. Endit