Six Ukrainian soldiers killed in new clashes with rebels

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has escalated over the past 24 hours, leaving six government troops dead and 12 wounded, a Ukrainian military spokesman said on Tuesday.
Fighting including heavy shelling broke out late on Monday evening and continued in the early hours of Tuesday on the outskirts of Donetsk, the pro-Russian separatists’ stronghold in eastern Ukraine, according to military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.
“The situation in the conflict zone remains unstable,” Lysenko said in a televised briefing. He added the fighting had been most intense around the Donetsk Airport and near positions of Ukrainian government troops near Shyrokyne and Pavlopil.
The rebels said one of their fighters was killed and five were wounded in the overnight clashes.
The leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said Ukraine had brought “more than 100 pieces of military equipment” close to the city over the past two weeks.
“This indicates preparation for an offensive,” the separatist Zakharchenko said.