Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, center, examines an equipment on a base of border... Read More
After Ukrainian troops agreed to stop shelling last night, artillery fire resumed at 7:30 p.m. in Donetsk, destroying three residential buildings and killing three civilians, the Donetsk city council said on its website. In neighboring Luhansk, rebels attacked Ukrainian positions in the town of Shchastya 20 times in all in the past day, killing three soldiers and wounding five. It was the second time since Oct. 5 that a government halt in
shelling went unreciprocated.
“A day of silence announced by the National Security and Defense Council was accompanied by rebel shelling against government troops and cities in the Luhansk region, which resulted in a number of wounded and killed,” Luhansk’s city council said in a statement on its website, citing Governor Hennadiy Moskal.
While fighting has ebbed since the government in Kiev and pro-Russian insurgents signed a truce a month ago in Belarus, skirmishes have continued daily. President Petro Poroshenko said last week that shelling must stop for 24 hours for the government to pull its troops back and create a 30-kilometer (19-mile) buffer zone under the truce agreement.
Minsk Talks
Separatist leader Andrei Purgin said the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic would be ready to resume peace talks in Minsk once it can be agreed by Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, according to news service RIA Novosti.“As soon as Russia and the OSCE come up with the initiative to continue the Minsk format, we will give our consent,” RIA quoted Purgin as saying. “We are not Taliban and are always ready for negotiations.”
Poroshenko called yesterday for the OSCE to provide 29 drones and 1,500 observers to monitor Ukraine’s border with Russia and a buffer zone to be set up around separatist-held areas under a truce deal agreed in Minsk on Sept. 5.
Ukraine, the U.S. and the European Union blame Russia for providing weapons, financing and troops to the separatists, a charge Moscow denies. The two sides have exchanged tit-for-tat sanctions that have depressed economic growth in both the EU and Russia, causing the latter to flirt with a recession.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Hroisman and Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin will head to Brussels to meet with Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule and other officials, Hroisman said on Twitter today. They will discuss planned aid for Ukraine and hold meetings with NATO officials, he said.
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