Pro-Russian separatists violate cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, military says
Armed men wearing military fatigues gathered on armored personnel carries in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk in this undated picture. (AFP Photo/Getty Images)


Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine Sunday violated a cease-fire with government forces, wounding one soldier, the Ukrainian military said.

The rebel forces opened fire on troops in the Krasnohorivka area using a grenade launcher, the military said in a statement. Rebel officials were unavailable for immediate comments.

The Ukrainian military said the attack indicated the pro-Russian forces wanted to disrupt an agreement reached by the two sides and OSCE negotiators for a full cease-fire from July 27.

Since the conflict broke out between Kyiv's forces and pro-Moscow separatists in 2014, there have been numerous attempts to end the fighting, but these cease-fires have never held long enough to pave the way for peace talks.

Ukraine has been fighting separatists in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014.

Major combat ended with a truce agreed in the Belarus capital Minsk in 2015, but sporadic clashes still regularly kill civilians, Ukrainian soldiers and separatists.

More than 13,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far.