Ukraine cease-fire in danger
Print Edition
A WOMAN died and at least four people were wounded when fighting flared again in eastern Ukraine yesterday, jeopardizing a cease-fire struck less than two days earlier between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels.
The accord, brokered by envoys from Ukraine, the rebel leadership, Russia and Europe’s OSCE security watchdog, is part of a peace plan intended to end a five-month conflict that has killed nearly 3,000 people and caused the sharpest confrontation between Russia and the West since the Cold War a generation ago.
Shelling resumed near the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov late on Saturday night, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had agreed in a phone call that the truce was holding.
Fighting also broke out early yesterday on the northern outskirts of rebel-held Donetsk, the region’s industrial hub. Plumes of black smoke filled the sky near the airport, which has been in the hands of government forces.
“Listen to the sound of the cease-fire,” joked one armed rebel. “There’s a proper battle going on there.”
By early afternoon both cities were calm again.
Both sides said they were observing the cease-fire, blaming their opponents for violations.
“As far as I know, the Ukrainian side is not observing the cease-fire. We have wounded on our side at various points. We are observing the cease-fire,” Vladimir Antyufeyev, deputy premier of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic,” told reporters.
Earlier, government forces said they had come under artillery fire east of Mariupol, a crucial port for Ukrainian steel exports. In the days before the cease-fire they had been trying to repel a major rebel offensive.
The shelling in Mariupol claimed the first civilian casualty since the cease-fire began. Officials confirmed the death of a 33-year-old woman and said at least four other people had been wounded.
Poroshenko agreed to the cease-fire after Ukraine accused Russia of sending troops and arms onto its territory to bolster the separatists after they suffered heavy losses over the summer to a Ukrainian government offensive.
Moscow denies sending forces or arming the rebels despite what NATO says is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
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