Fresh fighting in eastern Ukraine claimed at least 10 lives on Friday, including a senior commander of the Ukrainian border troops.
Colonel Ihor Momot was killed by artillery fire from separatist insurgents early on Friday, the Ukrainian border guard service stated, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency. It did not specify the incident’s location.
The government in Kiev reported a string of violent clashes centred along the border in the Luhansk region. It said that four soldiers were killed and 25 injured in fighting during the last 24 hours.
Four miners were killed and 16 more injured when their shuttle bus was hit by an artillery rocket in the Ukrainian border town of Chervonopartizansk on Thursday, their mining company DTEK reported on Friday.
Ukrainian officials said government forces had retaken two border posts from rebels — Chervonopartizansk and Izvarine.
Russia protested late Thursday that a Ukrainian rocket hit its Gukovo border post — the Russian counterpart to Chervonopartizansk.
Clashes also continued in Donetsk on Friday, where a separatist commando attacked the city’s airport on Thursday.
City authorities said that the fighting continued through the night.
An unnamed separatist representative told Interfax that 35 government soldiers were killed when rebels repelled an attempt to send reinforcements to the airport.
The violence in eastern Ukraine surged last week after President Petro Poroshenko declared an end to a ceasefire and rebels withdrew from a number of cities.
Attempts by French and German leaders to restart negotiations initiated during a recent ceasefire have not been successful.
