Ukraine shelling claims lives as renewed fighting rattles truce
Sep 07, – Fighting around two flashpoint cities in eastern Ukraine on Sunday rattled a tenuous truce between government troops and pro-Russian rebels less than 48 hours after it came into force.
Insurgent militias bombarded a government-held checkpoint on the eastern edge of the port city of Mariupol overnight, local officials said, killing one woman and triggering panic among residents.
Artillery fire was also heard near the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk, correspondents said, with the Ukrainian government accusing separatist gunmen of trying to attack the city’s airport.
The violence erupted just hours after a phone call between Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who agreed that the ceasefire was “generally being observed”.
Mariupol city hall said one woman had died in the shelling, the first reported death since the ceasefire.
The 12-point pact signed in Minsk Friday was the first to win the backing of both Kiev and Moscow after five months of warfare that set off the deepest crisis in East-West relations for a generation.
“The Ukrainian army has met the truce conditions fully, and has ceased fire. At the same time, our checkpoints came under attack from the terrorist side,” said National Security and Defence Council official Volodymyr Poloviy.
– ‘Unable to sleep’ –
The peace plan was drawn up after the rebels — reportedly backed by Russian troops and firepower — launched a lightning counter-offensive in late August that dramatically reversed recent gains by the Ukrainian army and set alarm bells ringing over Moscow’s territorial ambitions.
Mariupol residents have for days been fearful of an insurgent assault in what analysts see as a possible land grab to carve out a corridor between Russia and the Crimean peninsula annexed by Moscow in March.
The situation was calm in the Azov Sea port city Sunday but several buildings and vehicles were damaged.
“I want peace but I think this ceasefire is finished, this is the third night we haven’t been able to sleep,” one 46-year-old woman who gave her name only as Victoria told.
Both sides had accused the other of violating the truce within hours of its signing, raising fears it could go the way of a unilateral ceasefire called by Kiev in June that collapsed within days.
The separatists opposed to Kiev’s rule insist they will not give up their demands for an independent state in the eastern region that accounts for one-sixth of Ukraine’s population and a quarter of its exports.
The Minsk accord calls on both sides to pull back from major flashpoints and provides for the creation of a border security zone.
It also stipulates an exchange of prisoners — which began on small scale Sunday — and the supply of humanitarian aid to the devastated eastern cities.
On the political front, the deal outlines the decentralisation of power with Donetsk and Lugansk to be granted “temporary special status” ahead of local elections.
Rebel leaders said the so-called contact group that signed the pact would meet again in a week or so.
– ‘Possessed by Satan’ –
Western leaders accuse Russia of actively fomenting the rebellion by funnelling huge numbers of troops and weapons into Ukraine and massing a force of around 20,000 men on the border — claims which Moscow dismisses as propaganda.
The US and the EU have already agreed to beef up sanctions against Russia, while NATO approved a rapid reaction force aimed at reassuring jittery eastern European states.
Putin came under personal attack at the weekend from the Dalai Lama, who accused him of being “self-centred” and seeking to rebuild the Berlin Wall, while the head of Ukraine’s Orthodox Church said he was “possessed by Satan”.
Press jour alist for HRO media – Norberto luch reports.
Category: European Crises
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