Russian separatists threaten to extend rebel rule
RUSSIAN-BACKED separatists promised yesterday to follow up a devastating victory over Ukrainian forces at Donetsk airport with further advances, defying an agreement between Moscow and Kiev to return to a previous ceasefire line and raising fears of an all-out offensive.
The threat came after a mortar attack on a bus and tram in Donetsk killed at least 13 civilians and international observers said the number killed in the conflict has reached 5000.
Ukrainian forces withdrew from Donetsk airport on Thursday, bringing an end to an eight-month battle in what will be seen as a bitter blow for pro-Kiev forces and a triumph for the proRussian rebels they are fighting.
Alexander Zakharchenko, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said that he would push the front line so far to the west of Donetsk that the city would be out of the range of Ukrainian artillery. ‘‘We will push back the front until no shells can fall on Donetsk,’’ Zakharchenko said shortly after the mortar attack.
The comments appear to torpedo diplomatic efforts to resuscitate a ceasefire agreement signed in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, in September.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Pavlo Klimkin, his Ukrainian counterpart, agreed on Thursday night that both sides should return to a ceasefire line agreed at the Minsk deal, which was signed by representatives from Ukrainian, Russian, and the separatists.
At late-night talks in Berlin, the two ministers agreed that both sides should withdraw heavy artillery nine miles from the demarcation line, which is based on the positions of the two armies when the agreement was signed on September 5.
Zakharchenko, who has previously promised to extend rebel rule to the borders of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, blamed the bus attack on a Ukrainian ‘‘raiding party’’ operating behind separatist lines. He then ordered a captured Ukrainian officer to be paraded at the scene. Witnesses described how guards allowed civilians to beat the prisoner.
The Ukrainian defence minis- try denied Zakharchenko’s accusation, blaming the attack on ‘‘illegal armed groups’’ – Kiev’s preferred description of the separatists. Rebel officials said the weapon used was a mobile 82mm mortar, which, because of the range, suggests the shells could only have been fired from within separatist-held territory.
Residential areas of Donetsk have suffered repeated shelling since the battle for the airport began in May, but the scene of the bus attack, in the central Lenin district, is a long way from areas usually affected by fighting.