Ukrainian serviceman killed in rebel attack near Mariupol: military

[April 25, 2015]  By Pavel Polityuk
 
 KIEV (Reuters) - One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and two were wounded in shelling attacks by pro-Russian separatists on Saturday near the port of Mariupol in Ukraine's southeast, Kiev's military said.

A military spokesman said rebels opened artillery fire on forces from the government's National Guard at Shyrokyne, a village to the east of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, despite a ceasefire agreed in Minsk, Belarus, in mid-February.

"Today at 0625 hours, the adversary used 122 mm artillery. They are banned under the Minsk agreements," spokesman Dmytro Gorbunov told 112 television channel, adding that a 42-year-old Kiev-born serviceman was killed as a result and two others were badly wounded.

The commander of the battalion which came under fire was separately quoted as saying the serviceman was killed when a medical vehicle taking him to hospital came under fire from the rebels.

Large quantities of heavy weapons with a caliber of more than 100 mm have been withdrawn by both sides under the Minsk agreements, brokered by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France in Belarus in February.

Both sides accuse the other of regularly violating the accord, however, and a monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says the ceasefire is fragile.

The Kiev military says rebels are keeping up pressure on Mariupol, a city of half a million and still controlled by the government, which lies strategically part-way between rebel-controlled eastern regions and Crimea which was annexed by Russia in March 2014.

More than 6,100 people have been killed in the conflict which erupted in the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine after Russia seized Crimea following the overthrow of a Moscow-backed president in Kiev.

(Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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