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 No sustained fighting were reported in the incidents, nor any
casualties on the Ukrainian side which is also observing a week-long
ceasefire until June 27.
"(Separatist) fighters are not ceasing to shoot at the positions of
Ukrainian forces," Vladyslav Seleznyov, a spokesman for the Kiev
government's "anti-terrorist" operation, said on his Facebook page
on Tuesday.
Rebel militia, using grenade-launchers and mortar, carried out
attacks on a government military post near the rebel-controlled town
of Slaviansk and used small arms in an assault on another post
further east towards the border with Russia, Selznyov said.
He said Ukrainian government forces had not been involved in any
military action in line with a ceasefire announced by President
Petro Poroshenko last Friday.
"I can not say whether the separatists have violated or not violated
(the ceasefire), but the facts speak for themselves - yesterday
during the day and in the evening they fired on our positions,"
Seleznyov told Reuters separately.
Separatist leaders in two main areas of Ukraine's east on Monday
night agreed also to a truce until the morning of June 27, raising
the first real prospect of an end to hostilities since separatist
rebellions erupted in the east in April.
The rebels, who have declared "people's republics" and have said
they want to join Russia, declared their ceasefire after talks
involving a former Ukrainian president, Moscow's envoy to Kiev and a
high-ranking representative of the OSCE security and rights
watchdog.
Poroshenko's ceasefire is part of his peace plan to end a pro-Russia
insurgency in areas near the border with Russia which threatens
dismemberment of the ex-Soviet republic.
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Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula earlier this year after
street protests in Kiev ousted the Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich
from power.
Poroshenko's plan, which offers a safety "corridor" back to Russia
for pro-Russian fighters who lay down their arms, has secured the
backing of Western governments and qualified support from Russian
President Vladimir Putin who has urged Kiev to hold talks with the
separatist leaders.
The next step in contacts between the two sides is not clear, though
it seems likely the rebels may use the break in hostilities to press
demands for "federalization" of Ukraine - something which Kiev
refuses because it sees it as likely to lead to the country breaking
up.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing By Richard
Balmforth; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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