Ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels effective: Ukraine

A ceasefire agreed between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels last week has proved "effective", a Ukrainian government spokesman said Wednesday.

"The current ceasefire regime is effective. We benefit from it in at least three dimensions," Xinhua quoted Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andrei Lysenko as saying.

Lysenko said the truce has allowed government forces to release the prisoners of war and captive civilians, besides strengthen the position of military units and gather more information about the situation in the region.

He added that no Ukrainian servicemen has been killed Wednesday in the eastern regions.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Monday announced that pro-Russian rebels have released 1,200 people they captured during the nearly five-month conflict with government forces.

The ceasefire deal was inked by the representatives of Ukraine's government and rebel leadership Friday in Minsk, Belarus, to pave the way for a solution to the Ukraine crisis and a permanent end to the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine.

The truce meeting was also attended by representatives from Russia and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Clashes between Ukrainian government troops and rebels, which started in mid-April, have claimed about 3,000 lives, with hundreds of thousands of other people displaced.