MOSCOW - Ukrainian officials and Russian-backed separatists say a tenuous cease-fire has held for a week along the front lines in eastern Ukraine, after months of intense combat over the summer.
Government and separatist forces began the truce on Sept. 1, coinciding with the beginning of the school year. “The number of casualties among Ukrainian service members has decreased dramatically,” said Col. Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, the Ukrainian government’s military spokesman. “Not a single soldier was killed over September 1-4.”
