Two soldiers killed in Ukraine attack

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed in an attack by independence-seeking insurgents on a checkpoint fortified by government forces in eastern Lugansk region, a military spokesman said Monday.

Andrei Lysenko, a spokesman for the National Security and Defence Council, said the soldiers died when a shell hit their armoured personnel carrier at the checkpoint near Smeloe village, Xinhua reported.

According to the spokesman, there was no "large-scale fighting" over the past 24 hours between government troops and rebel forces in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, authorities of Mariupol city in Donetsk region said artillery shelling overnight on the city outskirts badly damaged several private houses.

"The casualty figure is yet to be established," the press service of Mariupol municipal council said in a statement.

There were no reports about rebel casualties over the past day.

The fighting eased in eastern Ukraine after government forces and insurgents agreed last Tuesday to enforce a so-called "regime of silence" in the war-torn areas to prevent further loss of human lives in the six-month-old bloodshed.

The conflict, which erupted in eastern Ukraine in mid-April, has claimed at least 3,700 lives and injured more than 9,000 others.