Ukraine says three of its servicemen have been killed and 13 wounded in clashes in the country’s east.
Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on July 5 that government forces suffered losses in the previous 24 hours across various parts of the 500-kilometre frontline splitting the separatist-held areas from the rest of Ukraine.
Lysenko said the worst fighting centered on the separatist stronghold of Donetsk and the southeastern government-controlled city of Mariupol.
Fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,300 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
Under a cease-fire agreement reached last year in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, both sides pledged to pull back heavy weaponry as well as take other steps toward a peace settlement.