“We are deeply concerned about the latest break in the cease-fire and the aggression... Read More
The U.S. and the European Union warned that Russia may face further repercussions after a rocket attack on the port city of Mariupol on Saturday. The projectiles were launched from rebel-held territory, the U.S., NATO, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said. The separatists blamed government forces.
The battles erupting on the Sea of Azov coast indicate further escalation after fighting intensified this month, eradicating a truce signed in September. The rise in violence sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity, with the U.S. and its allies putting pressure on Russia to use its influence on
the rebels. The Kremlin consistently denies military involvement.
“We are deeply concerned about the latest break in the cease-fire and the aggression these separatists” with Russian support are showing, U.S. President Barack Obama said at a news conference in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We will continue to take the approach we have taken in the past, which is to ratchet up the pressure on Russia.”
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko spoke at an emergency meeting of his security... Read More
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Ukrainian troops faced 115 rebel attacks in the past 24 hours, military spokesman Leonid Matyukhin said on Facebook.The EU has no alternative but to impose tougher sanctions on Russia after the “unambiguous” escalation of fighting in eastern Ukraine, Janusz Lewandowski, chief economic adviser to Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and a former EU budget commissioner, said in an interview Monday on Polish Television’s First Channel.
Ukraine, the U.S. and its allies accuse Russia of supporting the rebels with hardware, cash and thousands of troops, accusations the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. Russia says the government in Kiev is waging war against its own citizens and discriminating against Russian speakers, who make up the majority of the populations of Donetsk and Luhansk.
A new convoy of trucks carrying what Russia says is humanitarian aid will head for eastern Ukraine early on Jan. 27, RIA Novosti reported, citing the Emergencies Ministry in Moscow. Ukraine says such convoys cross the border illegally and it has accused Russia of using the trucks to send weapons and troops to the separatists.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Sunday phone call to avoid further escalation in the conflict and to exert influence on the separatists to adhere to the cease-fire signed in September in Minsk, Belarus, according to an e-mailed statement from the Berlin government’s press office.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Federica Mogherini, the EU’s top diplomat, in separate calls, his ministry said Sunday on its website. He agreed with Kerry on the need for an immediate truce and urged direct talks between the government in Kiev and the rebels, according to the statement.
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“Lavrov stressed Russia’s willingness to do anything it can to prompt parties to reach a peaceful resolution,” the ministry said. “Kiev is avoiding” dialog with the rebels “in every way, clearly having taken the course of suppression by force in Southeast Ukraine. Lavrov again urged the U.S. to use its influence on Ukrainian authorities to stop them betting on the military scenario.”Kerry condemned the “separatists’ Grad attack” and said that the costs to Russia will only increase if attacks continue, according to a senior State Department official.
Mogherini called a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers for Jan. 29, her office said Sunday. U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond urged Russia to end support for the separatists.
“I call on Russia to stop its material support to the separatists immediately, and use its considerable influence over the separatist leadership to stop these indiscriminate attacks,” Hammond said, according to an e-mailed statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Sunday. Continued escalation “will lead to a further grave deterioration in relations between the EU and Russia.”
‘Most Deadly’
The strategic port city of Mariupol suffered the deadliest attack yet as at least 30 civilians died and more than 100 were injured in the shelling Saturday, the Defense Ministry in Kiev said.The death toll in the conflict, which has brought tensions between Russia and its Cold War-era foes to their highest pitch since the fall of communism a quarter century ago, rose to more than 5,000 since it began last April, according to the United Nations. Jan. 13-21 was “the most deadly period” in the conflict since the truce was signed, the UN said Friday.
The situation along the front line is “stable” and Ukraine is reinforcing its positions, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said at the security council meeting.
Russia continues to send people and equipment across the border, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev on Sunday. Four government soldiers died and 17 were wounded, he said. They killed about 600 separatists and destroyed 14 tanks Jan. 17-22, he said. The numbers were impossible to verify.
‘Relative Calm’
The rebels are focusing their attacks on Debaltseve, near Donetsk, and are shelling government positions in the Luhansk region as well as around the Donetsk airport, the Defense Ministry in Kiev said. It reported “relative calm” in Mariupol.Eduard Basurin, a rebel leader, said “there was no offensive on Mariupol at all,” according to the Moscow-based Interfax news service.
Separatists were involved in “active defense activities along the whole line of engagement,” the Donetsk rebels said on their website. They are focusing on “suppressing the firing positions of the enemy,” Denis Pushilin, a rebel representative said on the same website. “That’s the only language they understand,” Pushilin said.
‘Launched Indiscriminately’
The attacks on Mariupol “appear to have been launched indiscriminately into civilian areas, which would constitute a violation of international humanitarian law,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon’s office said in a statement dated Jan. 24.Leonid Slutsky, a Russian lawmaker, said the shells were fired by the Ukrainian military as pretext to accuse the rebels of violating the truce, the Moscow-based Itar-Tass news service reported. The OSCE report proves that, but “they do not prefer them, putting things upside down,” he said, according to state-owned Itar-Tass.
At the security council meeting, Poroshenko urged a “reliable” cease-fire, the pullback of troops, the closing of the country’s border with Russia and a return to the agreements signed in Minsk.
A meeting with the government would be “inappropriate” in the current conditions, Vladislav Deynego, a negotiator for the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic said, according to the Lugansk Information Center news website.
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