Observers raise alarm about fighting in eastern Ukraine

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — International observers are raising the alarm about intensified fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Evgeniy Maloletka

FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017 file photo a local resident walking in a street is seen through a hole in an apartment building damaged by shelling in Avdiivka, Ukraine. Fighting in eastern Ukraine sharply escalated this week. The Ukrainian command said Saturday that several soldiers were killed in the past day. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

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FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017 file photo a local resident walking in a street is seen through a hole in an apartment building damaged by shelling in Avdiivka, Ukraine. Fighting in eastern Ukraine sharply escalated this week. The Ukrainian command said Saturday that several soldiers were killed in the past day. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

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In this photo taken on Friday, July 14, 2017, a student at a paramilitary camp for children calls the rank to attention outside Kiev, Ukraine. As the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine entered its third year, some parents in Ukraine are anxious to make sure their children are ready to fight it, instead of swimming and playing volleyball.(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

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FILE - In this Tuesday, April 11, 2017 file photo Nazi concentration camp survivor Alexander Bytschok of Kiev, Ukraine, mourns on a metal plaque during the commemoration ceremonies for the 72th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald near Weimar, Germany. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)

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FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017 file photo a powerful explosion is seen in the ammunition depot at a military base in Kalynivka, west of Kiev, Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say they have evacuated more than 30,000 people after a fire and ammunition explosions, at the military base. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

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Ertugrul Apakan, chief monitor of the special monitoring mission for eastern Ukraine at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters on Tuesday that the number of cease-fire violations increased by 35 percent in the past week compared a week earlier.

Local media reported intense shelling and damage to properties on both lines of the conflict this week.

Fighting between Russia-backed separatists and government troops in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 10,000 since 2014. Peace accords brokered by Russia, France and Germany in 2015 helped to decrease the intensity of the fighting but did not stop it altogether. Political settlement stipulated by the accords has not been implemented either.

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