8 killed as fighting escalates in Ukraine
AVDIIVKA: Heavy artillery and rockets hit residential areas in eastern Ukraine yesterday amid new fighting between government troops and Russian- backed separatist rebels, killing at least eight people and injuring dozens.
Salvos of artillery were heard throughout the night and late morning in Avdiivka, a town on the northern outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk where residents have been without electricity for days. In Donetsk, at least, one civilian was killed by shrapnel.
The UN Security Council called for “an immediate return to the ceasefire regime”.
Council members, including Ukraine which is serving a twoyear term, expressed “grave concern about the dangerous deterioration of the situation in the eastern Ukraine and its severe impact on the local civil- ian population”.
The council condemned the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements on ending the conflict and called for their implementation. Members also expressed “full support” for the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
The warring sides blamed each other for the spike in hostilities, the worst in months. The Ukrainian government was considering evacuating 12 000 residents from Avdiivka, Pavlo Zhebrivsky, an official said.
With no signs of an immediate evacuation in sight, some residents went to a local bus station, hoping to get away from the heavy shelling.
Valery Tretyakov said he was having tea at home in Donetsk when he heard a big explosion and the sound of shattered glass.
He rushed into the bedroom and saw his wife bleeding from a shrapnel wound to her neck that proved fatal.
“It was impossible to stop bleeding,” Tretyakov said. “One minute and that’s all.”
Reports also said that four fighters died and seven were injured overnight along with three civilians.
Oleksandr Turchynov, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Defence Council, said shelling around Avdiivka killed, at least, three government troops and injured 24 more.
The press office of the Ukrainian military operation in the east reported an unspecified number of civilian casualties. It said the rebels turned down the government’s offer for a ceasefire to allow the dead and wounded to be moved.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accused the Ukrainian government of provoking the hostilities to distract public attention from domestic issues.
Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the Kremlin had “reliable information” that Ukrainian volunteer battalions had crossed the front line on Monday night and tried to capture rebel-controlled territory.
Kiev is worried that Donald Trump’s administration could ease some sanctions on Russia the US imposed for the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and support for the insurgency in the east.
The US State Department voiced concern about the spike in fighting and yesterday reaffirmed Washington’s support for the full implementation of the peace deal. – ANA-AP