KIEV: Two people have been killed by shelling in east Ukraine as isolated clashes rattled a shaky truce with pro-Russian rebels and observers warned the country was at a “crossroads”.

Photographer Sergiy Nikolayev from Ukrainian daily Segodnya died after getting caught in fighting at a flashpoint village close to the fiercely-contested Donetsk airport, the newspaper said in a statement.

Ultra-nationalist organisation Right Sector — which is battling alongside government forces — said that one of its fighters was also killed in the attack.

Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said fighting had halted along most of the frontline but rebels were firing at Ukrainian positions around the ruined airport, one of the most fiercely contested locations in the conflict. No government soldiers were reported killed over the past 24 hours.

The two warring sides both said they were continuing the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front — a key next step in a stuttering European-brokered peace plan to end fighting that has cost at least 5,800 lives since April.

Ukraine’s military said that it had completed the first stage of the withdrawal by pulling back its 100-mm cannons and was waiting for the order to start moving bigger calibre weapons.

Rebels claim they have already shifted the bulk of their heavy arms.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2015

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