Five soldiers killed in eastern Ukraine

Five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and a dozen others were wounded over the last 24 hours in the east of the country, spokesman for the Kiev military command Andrei Lysenko said on Wednesday.

"In the last 24 hours, we lost five fighters as a result of armed clashes" with pro-Russian separatists operating in eastern Ukraine, Efe news agency cited Lysenko as saying.

He added that most of the fatalities occurred when an armoured personnel carrier detonated an explosive device near the town of Avdiivka, in the rebel region of Donetsk.

Representatives from the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists are meeting on Wednesday in Minsk, while the situation in eastern Ukraine deteriorated significantly over the weekend, when violence returned to the city of Donetsk, the main stronghold of the rebels.

The meeting will be closed and participants are not expected to make any statements to the press, as reported by the Belarusian foreign affairs ministry on Wednesday.