9 dead in uptick of violence in eastern Ukraine

Ukraine’s military says at least three civilians have been killed since Friday in east Ukraine during record high shelling by Russian-backed separatists, amid mounting Western concerns over the increased fighting.

The conflicts, near Mariupol in florida while at Gorlivka, a rebel-held metropolis, organized component of an gain in fieriness which make further distress on any risky truce among the two sides of the body.

Two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and seven wounded in the past 24 hours, the military said. Several people, including a 10-year-old girl, were taken to hospital with wounds. One house had a well-tended garden with vines and a vegetable patch. “But the home were ruined by bears and saw a significant lake of feeding blood”, a native newscast…

The Donetsk News Agency, which advocates pro-Russia forces, said that five people were killed from their side in a shelling by government forces overnight.

“They were using heavy weapons”.

There was no immediate government confirmation of this report.

Last Monday, Ukraine accused the separatists of carrying out the heaviest artillery attacks on government positions near the port city of Mariupol in half a year. “Another four have various injuries”, the site quoted the mayor of the town as saying.

Lavrov said that Ukraine and the pro-Russian rebels had been negotiating for a withdrawal of weapons away from the area, including demilitarization of the town of Shyrokyne, which is near Mariupol and has seen intense fighting. It touched a six-month low against the dollar, dropping 1 percent.

It comes as both sides are accusing the other of preparing to launch an offensive.

Military escalation could happen at any moment if the parties involved don’t concentrate on the peace process, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier told his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, according to an interview with Bild am Sonntag published Sunday.

More than 6,500 people have been killed in the conflict which erupted in April 2014 after Russian Federation annexed Crimea, in reaction to the fall of a Moscow-backed president in Kiev, and threw its support behind separatists in the east.