Big guns in east Ukraine fall silent, two more die from wounds in Kiev protests

Ukrainian police and national guard officers carry an injured colleague to an ambulance outside the parliament building in Kiev, Ukraine, August 31, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer

KIEV (Reuters) - A fragile truce between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists appeared to be holding on Tuesday as both sides made a renewed effort to silence their guns and make the much-abused ceasefire work.

Sporadic shelling and shooting, which each side has blamed on the other, had ensured a steadily mounting death toll despite the ceasefire called as part of a peace plan worked out in Minsk, Belarus, in February.