A fragile truce between pro-Russian insurgents and Ukrainian forces appeared to be consolidate on Monday as clashes subsided and attention focused on the unresolved status of the separatist east.
Ukraine said it lost two soldiers in sporadic overnight raids by “armed gangs” on small towns surrounding the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk, but that nevertheless the military was preparing to pull back, as agreed under a new ceasefire deal.
The toll brings to 39 the number of Ukrainian troops and civilians killed since the warring sides signed a September 5 truce that NATO’s top military commander warned at the weekend was holding “in name only”.
The original ceasefire was reinforced on Saturday by another Kremlin-backed deal setting out the terms of a mutual troop withdrawal and establishment of a 30-kilometre buffer zone along the frontline.