REUTERS
Despite a ceasefire in Ukraine having been supposed to come into effect nearly three months ago, fierce fighting continues at the hotspots of Pisky near the battle-shattered Donetsk airport and the village of Shyrokyne near the Ukrainian-held port city of Mariupol.
Speaking at a briefing in Kyiv on Monday, the press secretary of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine on the Anti-Terrorist Operation, Colonel Oleksandr Motuzyanik, said that while fighting has decreased in some parts of the combat zone, it continues unabated in two main hotspots.
"The hottest point was the town of Pisky – it saw 10 attacks [by Russian-backed militants] on Ukrainian army positions,” Motuzyanik said.
“Near Mariupol the town of Shyrokyne again became the epicenter [of the fighting.] There were 17 cases of the violation of the ceasefire on the part of the militants," he said.
At the same time, he said, the number of attacks by the militants has decreased in the town of Horlivka, to the north-east of the militant-held city of Donetsk.
Motuzyanik also said that in the Luhansk region the Russian-backed militants had violated the ceasefire near the settlements of Shastya, Stanitsa Luhanska, Krymske and Zolotoye.
He said that no Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the fighting in the east of Ukraine over the last day, but that five servicemen had been injured.