5 killed as Ukraine truce falters
Print Edition
UKRAINE said yesterday that dozens of tanks and truckloads of soldiers had crossed from Russia into the rebel territory, as five servicemen were killed in fighting that made a mockery of a supposed cease-fire.
A column of 32 tanks, 16 Howitzer cannons and 30 trucks carrying troops and equipment crossed the border into separatist-held Lugansk region on Thursday, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said. Another convoy with three mobile radar stations also entered the same area.
Lysenko said five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 16 injured in the past 24 hours in clashes between government forces and pro-Moscow rebels that underscored the emptiness of a two-month truce.
Fifteen civilians were wounded by shrapnel in the separatist bastion of Donetsk, the mayor’s office said, in a night of shelling in two neighborhoods near the ruins of the airport, where government troops are holding out.
While the September truce agreement has seen full-scale confrontations halt along most of the frontline, shelling has continued at flashpoints around the industrial east. Claims of fresh troop movements are reinforcing fears of a return to all-out fighting.
The latest casualties came after Kiev moved to isolate the separatist regions, firming up the split of the ex-Soviet republic in a crisis that has sent East-West relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War.
Some 150 mourners attended an emotional memorial service in the ravaged industrial hub for two teenage boys killed when a shell hit a school playing field on Wednesday. Kiev and the insurgents blamed each other for the incident.
The rebels held leadership elections on Sunday, defying Kiev with a move that sought to formalize their control over the separatist-held territory.
In response, Ukraine’s border guards announced obligatory passport controls around the rebel-held areas on Thursday, effectively setting up a de facto border despite Kiev’s insistence that it has not given up on reclaiming sovereignty.
That move dovetailed with a government decision to sever state subsidies worth some US$2.4 billion each to the guerrilla regions, including pensions, though not heating gas and electricity.
Kiev and the rebels inked peace accords in September aimed at saving Ukraine’s unity and ending a conflict that has claimed over 4,000 lives, with rebel zones being given autonomy, but not independence. In a rare chance for dialogue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet his US counterpart John Kerry today ahead of the APEC summit in Beijing next week.
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