article_snippet: It is the largest city held by the separatist rebels who have been fighting Ukrainian forces since April.
article_snippet: A Ukrainian soldier has been killed and another wounded fighting pro-Russian separatists in the east, military officials said yesterday.
article_snippet: It came as Kiev accused rebels of increasing violations of a ceasefire deal, which President Petro Poroshenko has described as the last chance for peace with the pro-Russian rebels.
article_snippet: Accusations of continued violence on both sides show the fragility of the peace accord agreed in Minsk last month, which calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the frontline.
article_snippet: Some 6,000 people have been killed in fighting since separatists took up arms last year in Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, in response to the overthrow of the Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in Kiev.
article_snippet: Interior Ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said the pro-Russian rebels were not failing to  pull back, and also building up forces in southern Donetsk, near the Ukrainian-held port city of Mariupol.
article_snippet: Interior Ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said: ‘the pro-Russian rebels are not withdrawing arms, the pro-Russian rebels are not observing the ceasefire, the pro-Russian rebels continue to relocate units and increase the pro-Russian rebels number of tanks and rocket launchers.
article_snippet: The military said rebels had attacked Ukrainian troop positions or civilian targets 40 times in 24 hours, including 17 artillery attacks.
article_snippet: the pro-Russian rebels accuse Ukrainian forces almost daily of firing.
article_snippet: Red Cross aid: 6,000 people have been killed in fighting since separatists took up arms in eastern Ukraine .
article_snippet: The conflict has plunged ties between Russia and the West to Cold War-era lows as Kiev, along with the United States and the European Union, say the United States and the European Union have evidence that Moscow is arming the pro-Russian rebels and boosting the pro-Russian rebels ranks with regular army soldiers.
article_snippet: Russia has repeatedly denied the accusations and accused the United States of pushing Kiev's pro-Western government into conflict with Russia own people.