Ukraine flexes muscle against rebels
Concern raised over possible Russian humanitarian mission
Ukrainian government forces roll Saturday through eastern Ukraine near the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, which they now have surrounded. Rebel leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko said his fighters are ready for a cease-fire to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe,” but his motives were not clear, officials said.
DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine’s rebels are surrounded and ready to agree to a cease-fire to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe,” the insurgents’ new leader said Saturday as conditions deteriorated in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, artillery thundering through deserted streets.
There was no immediate government response to the cease-fire statement. Ukrainian troops have made steady advances against the rebels in recent weeks.
“We are prepared to stop firing to bar the spread of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in Donbass [in eastern Ukraine],” Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the so-called prime minister of the Donetsk separatists, said in a statement on a rebel website.
His motive for offering a cease-fire was not clear, but his comments could be aimed at increasing the pressure on Ukraine to allow in a Russian aid mission.
Russia, which the West and the Ukrainian government in Kiev allege is supporting the rebels, has called repeatedly for a humanitarian mission into eastern Ukraine. But Kiev and the West suggest that could be just a pretext to send Russian forces into the region — and say about 20,000 of them have gathered just across the border.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Valeriy Chalyi, said Saturday that Russian forces wanted to enter Ukraine under the guise of a humanitarian mission but Ukraine had blocked the move.
The column of Russian soldiers and army equipment stopped before crossing the border into Ukraine after leaders asked the U.S., Russia and the Red Cross to intervene, Chalyi said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the report, saying that “there was no attempt by Russian soldiers at penetration,” according to Russian news agencies. But he reiterated Russia’s call for humanitarian action, saying “this catastrophe now is the No. 1 theme for discussion.”
Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko issued a statement late Saturday saying that Ukraine is prepared to accept humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine. But he said the aid must come in without military accompaniment, it must pass through border checkpoints under Ukrainian control and the mission must be international in character.
Poroshenko said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed German participation in such a mission.
Artillery reverberated Saturday across Donetsk, home to nearly 1 million people before 300,000 fled the conflict.
“The situation is getting worse with every hour,” Donetsk City Council spokesman Maxim Rovinsky said.
At least one person was killed and 18 wounded in shelling that hit about 30 apartment blocks Saturday in Donetsk, he said, adding that about 2,000 residential buildings had no electricity.
Ukrainian officials have consistently denied that their forces are shelling civilians, but the rebels dismiss that and claim the government is aiming to blame the insurgents for the increasing death and destruction. Ukraine says the rebels have deliberately put rocket launchers in populated areas.
Some say both sides are to blame.
“We’re afraid of the Ukrainian army, which is firing on the city, and of the rebels of the Donetsk People’s Republic, who are robbing and killing civilians,” said Dmitry Andronov, a 47-year-old resident.
Zakharchenko’s statement that the city was surrounded came hours after the rebels’ top commander said Ukrainian forces had seized a key town, Krasnyi Luch, effectively cutting Donetsk and nearby territory off from the rest of the rebel-held east.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian military operation, Andriy Lysenko, said Saturday that he could not confirm that Krasnyi Luch was under government control.
Concerns were also rising about a possible humanitarian catastrophe in the rebel’s second-largest city of Luhansk, where fighting has been heavier and more prolonged.
Russian news agencies quoted Luhansk authorities as saying Saturday that the city has been without water and electricity for a week, and most of its stores were closed.
The news agencies also said Russia’s navy claims to have driven away a submarine believed to be American that entered Russia’s northern waters.
The reports Saturday cited an unnamed representative of the navy’s general staff as saying the incident occurred Thursday in the Barents Sea off northwest Russia.
In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke by telephone on Saturday about Ukraine.
“Both expressed grave concern about reports that Russian military vehicles have crossed the border into Ukraine and that Russian armed forces are exercising for a ‘humanitarian intervention,’” said a statement from Cameron’s office. Both “are absolutely clear that such a so-called humanitarian mission would be unjustified and illegal.”
Obama and Germany’s Merkel also agreed that any Russian intervention in Ukraine was unacceptable and would violate international law. The two leaders spoke by phone Saturday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was working to alleviate the crisis in eastern Ukraine but warned that any Red Cross aid convoy “will be taken in strict adherence to our fundamental working principles of neutrality, impartiality and independence.”
The Red Cross said it hasn’t given approval to Russia to enter Ukrainian territory as a humanitarian aid force, Ukraine’s Chalyi said.
Meanwhile, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko ordered yellow bulldozers and dump trucks to the center of the capital to tear down and move away the remnants of the Maidan campsite, the center of protests that began in November against the now-ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.