At least two people were reported dead and eight injured as fighting resumed on Saturday between Ukrainian security forces and militant separatists in the country’s east.
The fighting focused on the city of Sloviansk. The dead were reportedly two civilians killed as national armed forces made a night-time approach to the city. Four were injured in the incident, said a spokesman for the separatists on Saturday.
No official confirmation of the incident was available.
Three soldiers were reported wounded after a separate exchange of gunfire near the Ukrainian-Russian border post of Dyakovo. An army spokesman said about 80 unidentified assailants had attacked the post with mortar shells.
Security forces repelled the attack with the aid of a Sukhoi Su-27 ground-attack jet.
Meanwhile, Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s northern Caucasian republic of Chechnya, denied reports that fighters from that region were assisting separatists in Ukraine.
“I can’t rule out that there are independent Chechens fighting there, but the reports about a special Chechen unit are completely untrue,” Mr. Kadyrov told the Interfax news agency.
