Ukraine fighting kills 23 as truce talks fail
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At least 23 soldiers and civilians were killed in clashes across east Ukraine as fierce fighting raged yesterday between government forces and pro-Russian rebels following the collapse of ceasefire talks.
Ukraine’s military said that 13 soldiers had died and 20 hurt over the past 24 hours, pushing the military death toll over the past two days to 28.
Ten civilians also died in fighting across the rebels’ self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and in Kiev-controlled towns in Lugansk region.
The latest casualty reports came as Ukraine’s two warring sides looked further than ever from agreeing a peace deal after the collapse of truce talks on Saturday.
Mediators and Ukrainian representatives accused the separatists of breaking a deal despite growing global pressure to defuse a bloody upsurge in fighting that has left scores dead in recent days.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is involved in the talks along with Russia, said that rebel negotiators in Minsk “were not even prepared to discuss implementation of a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons.”
Instead the insurgent representatives called for a total revision of an earlier Kremlin-backed peace plan signed in September that has formed the basis for all negotiations, the OSCE said in a statement.
The rebels say they now want to redraw the demarcation line between the two sides to include gains they have made since ripping up a shaky truce and pushing into Ukrainian territory.
Kiev has rebuffed this demand and said the rebels’ position has thrown any future peace talks into doubt.
“Unfortunately the peace process is now under threat,” Valeriy Chaly, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration wrote on his Facebook page.
The fiercest fighting on the ground is focused around the strategic town of Debaltseve, a railway hub between rebel bastions Donetsk and Lugansk, where rebels are trying to encircle government forces.
Ukraine military spokesman Volodymyr Polyovyi said that “constant battles” were ongoing around the town but denied insurgent claims that they have trapped some 8,000 government troops.
Civilians who have fled describe dire conditions in the town, which once had a population of 25,000, with water and electricity cut and the remaining inhabitants living in underground shelters.
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