9 Ukraine troops killed in battle to retake key town
KYIV
Nine Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in fighting Russian-backed separatists in the past 24 hours, the Kyiv military said on Tuesday, as rebels fought to encircle a key town straddling transport routes between their two strongholds.
Military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said 29 servicemen had been wounded in addition to those killed, adding that fighting was the most intense near the strategic town of Debaltseve, north-east of rebel-held Donetsk.
“The situation remains tense. In the past 24 hours illegal armed groups carried out 120 attacks on government positions,” he said in a televised briefing.
In Kyiv, parliament was due to meet for an emergency session to vote on a statement that would call Russia an aggressor-state, lawmakers said. It was not immediately clear what implications such a declaration would have beyond its symbolism.
US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said on Monday deadly attacks on the port city of Mariupol on the weekend show that Moscow’s objective is to increase the Ukrainian territory it controls.
Rebels control less than half of this area, but have made its two largest cities the capitals of their self-styled ‘People’s Republics.’
So long as it is under the control of Kyiv troops, it weakens the separatists’ frontline as it forms a “tongue”, extending into rebel-controlled territory, separatist deputy commander Eduard Basurin said.
In Brussels, European Union (EU) leaders asked their foreign ministers on Tuesday to consider possible new sanctions on Russia in response to a rebel offensive in eastern Ukraine, but a final decision to impose them is likely to be left to a summit next month.
Foreign ministers have called an extraordinary meeting for Thursday after Kyiv said 30 civilians were killed in shelling of the government-held port of Mariupol by pro-Russian rebels on Saturday, shattering a five-month ceasefire.
In a rare joint statement, the EU’s 28 leaders voiced concern about the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine and condemned the killing of civilians in the “indiscriminate shelling” of Mariupol.
“In view of the worsening situation we ask (foreign ministers) to assess the situation and to consider any appropriate action, in particular on further restrictive measures, aiming at a swift and comprehensive implementation of the Minsk agreements,” they said.
The leaders said they would assess the situation at their next meeting in February.
The foreign ministers are likely to ask the EU’s executive Commission on Thursday to prepare new sanctions against Russia, but the final decision on whether to implement them would be taken by EU leaders at their summit on February 12, EU officials and diplomats said.
It was unclear what kind of sanctions the EU might prepare, but one diplomat said he did not expect major new economic restrictions on Moscow at this stage.