KIEV, Oct. 27 - Ukraine said Tuesday one of its soldiers had died in a mortar fire exchange with pro-Russian insurgents near the shelled-out remains of an airport in the rebels' de facto capital Donetsk, AFP reported.

The sudden upsurge in violence underscored the fragility of a two-month truce that had calmed fighting after 18 months of near-constant clashes in which more than 8,000 people died.

Echoes of repeated heavy weapons fire around the western outskirts of the coal mining city -- emptied of many of its nearly one million residents -- kept many up throughout the night.

"Shells flew over our house," a resident of the nearby Oktyabrsky district who agreed to identify himself only as Sergiy for security reasons, told AFP.

"We heard mortar fire this morning. The situation has calmed down a bit and I left without waiting for the violence to resume."

It was only the fifth death of a Ukrainian soldier in combat reported by Kiev since September 1.

There have also been some civilian casualties and Ukrainian soldiers blown up by landmines that still scatter both the Luhansk and Donetsk separatist provinces.
The rebels rarely report their own losses.

"Yesterday, the positions of the Ukrainian army near Pisky and Opytne came under fire that killed one Ukrainian soldier," military spokesman Oleksandr Zavtonov told AFP.

Donetsk airport was desperately defended by a skeleton force of outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers before falling to militia fighters that Kiev claims were backed by Russian troops in January.

Moscow denies either arming or supporting the rebels and only admits to providing them with political backing at such venues as UN Security Council debates.

Yet the area remains one of the main hotspots of a devastated war zone in the once booming industrial heartland in the east of the ex-Soviet state.

Ukrainian troops and volunteer units still surround towns to the northwest of the city and the rebels occasionally fire shells and rockets at government outposts.

Both sides accuse the other of repeatedly violating the truce. (afp/ez)