Sporadic fighting has pierced the fragile ceasefire in east Ukraine. The OSCE which is charged with monitoring the truce which entered into force five days ago has observed a limited number of violations varying from heavy shelling to continuous gunfire. Euronews spoke to Michael Bociurkiw – Spokesperson for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine to get a clearer picture.

“There is a general ceasefire but there are exceptions, there are hotspots. First of all we do have a team of observers in Mariupol and I can tell you the situation as of last night, until 18:00, over the previous 24 hours period. There was about 20 or 30 kilometres east of Mariupol quite a lot of shelling. That’s relatively new phenomena since the peace deal took effect.”

The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of sending troops towards Novoazovsk near to Mariupol, saying the town is the next objective for the separatists to capture. Moscow is yet to respond.

“The other were some hotspots in Donets