Killings shake Ukraine truce
KYIV
Ukraine’s tenuous truce and troop withdrawal deal lay in tatters on Tuesday after the deadliest wave of attacks by pro-Russian insurgents in more than a month killed nine government soldiers.
The surge in clashes across the separatist rust belt spelled an ominous start to campaigning for parties that make the ballot for October 26 parliamentary polls once the registration deadline passes on Tuesday night.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told German Chancellor Angela Merkel – his closest and most powerful European ally – on Monday that Russia was ignoring the terms of a September 5 peace pact the sides sealed in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
Poroshenko “stressed that he expected Russia to fulfil its Minsk Protocol obligations: to withdraw forces, ensure the border’s closure, and establish a buffer zone,” the presidency said.
Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov told Kyiv’s Channel 5 TV on Tuesday that insurgents were again using Grad multiple rocket launcher systems that have been blamed for destroying scores of civilian homes.
The EU decided to keep in place biting economic sanctions on Russia over its alleged backing of pro-Kremlin insurgents who have largely ignored a four-week Ukrainian truce.
The joint US and EU sanctions on Russia’s largest banks and energy firms aim to cut off the Kremlin from its main sources of income and erode Putin’s domestic support.
