KIEV, April 5 (Xinhua) -- The fresh ceasefire that came into the force in eastern Ukraine last week has eased the hostilities in the conflict-hit area, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday.
Alexander Hug, deputy chief monitor of the OSCE special monitoring mission to Ukraine, told reporters that the OSCE observers recorded 1,721 ceasefire violations over the past seven days compared with about 5,000 ceasefire violations a week before.
"The recommitment to ceasefire has brought results," Hug said, urging the conflicting parties to completely cease the hostilities ahead of Easter, which falls on April 8 this year.
The conflict between government troops and pro-independence rebels in Ukraine's eastern region of Donbas has been raging since April 2014, claiming close to 10,000 lives.
On March 26, the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas crisis has reached an agreement on a fresh round of ceasefire in the region starting about midnight on March 30.
The Trilateral Contact Group is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE that was formed as means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the conflict.