KYIV, Feb 23 - A minibus hit a landmine while crossing the border between Ukraine and the breakaway Donetsk region on Saturday, killing two civilians and injuring a third, local authorities and witnesses said, Reuters reported.

The bus, carrying three people, hit the mine after swerving off road in the buffer zone between two border posts, a statement on the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic official website read.

The driver was killed along with one passenger. The other passenger, a 61-year-old man, was being treated in hospital. He told a Reuters journalist that the passenger who was killed was his mother.

The incident occurred near the village of Yelenovka, outside Donetsk. The passengers were returning to the rebel-controlled region after collecting their pensions, the statement said.

Fighting broke out in 2014 between Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and forces loyal to the pro-Western Ukrainian government in Kyiv. Despite an internationally brokered ceasefire that ended major fighting in 2015, deadly flare-ups of fighting occur regularly.

The U.S. and the European Union are close to agreeing upon new sanctions that will be imposed against Russia for attacking Ukrainian naval ships in November.

The measures will be announced within the next two months and will be aimed against a number of Russian companies and people linked to the attack in the Sea of Azov.

Russian forces seized three Ukrainian Navy ships and 24 crewmen in the Kerch Strait that links the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov on November 25. The incident escalated tensions in the region and prompted international calls for the sailors' release.

Russia has alleged that the vessels had illegally entered Russian territorial waters near the Crimea region, which Russia seized from Ukraine in March 2014.

Kyiv has accused Moscow of stepping up "aggression" against Ukraine.

The EU, the US, and other countries have imposed sanctions on Russia over Moscow's seizure of Crimea and its support for separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people in eastern Ukraine since April 2014. (rt/ez)