Ukraine accuses pro-Russia rebels of violating truce
DONETSK
Ukraine’s military accused pro-Russian fighters on Wednesday of violating a long-awaited truce at a flashpoint airport in rebel-held Donetsk just hours after it was agreed.
Separately, Ukraine’s parliament voted in a new government on Tuesday, putting foreign technocrats in key financial roles and renewing terms for the foreign and defence ministers in a signal that no major change in policy is likely on the rebellious east.
The sound of artillery shelling echoed across the war zone’s largest city the morning after both sides promised to halt fire at the site of the deadliest fighting in the eight-month east Ukrainian conflict.
A journalist team heard several Grad rockets that appeared to have been fired from rebel-held positions just before noon local time.
“We heard the shelling but we are not afraid — we are used to it by now,” said airport district resident Oleksandr from the safety of his new apartment closer to the city centre.
“Even in my worst nightmares, I would have never imagined the things happening to us here today,” he said looking out over the empty streets of a regional capital now abandoned by half of its one million residents.
Ukraine’s top military spokesman said the insurgents held fire throughout the truce negotiations before relaunching their rocket strikes.
“Unfortunately, the ceasefire is not being respected,” Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
“Attacks on the airport and Ukrainian positions have resumed.”
Local authorities reported no immediate casualties because the disputed area is not open to access by medics or local security personnel.
The rebel fighters themselves denied organising any raids on the suburban airport complex.
“Our side respected the ceasefire,” a local commander said under the condition that his name not be disclosed.
The airport truce was meant to take effect after a round of negotiations between the visiting deputy head of Russia’s ground forces and a senior Ukrainian general.
Moscow’s decision to dispatch such a senior commander underscored the extent of its influence over the insurgents — a link Russia refuses to acknowledge.
Western charges of Kremlin support for the uprising and the threat of further economic sanctions are likely to top the agenda of a Thursday meeting in the Swiss city of Basel between US Secretary John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Kerry and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz are in Brussels for talks after a year in which the United States has led the push for tougher sanctions, while some governments in Europe, afraid economic measures against Russia will hurt them as much as they hurt Moscow, have been more cautious.
The draft statement said the crisis between Russia and Ukraine that erupted with Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in March can be cooled, as was shown by a tentative October agreement brokered by the EU on gas pricing to ward off a supply crisis over the peak winter months.
Moscow cut off Kyiv’s gas in June in a row over unpaid bills and the price Gazprom charges Ukraine.
Another ceasefire for the entire neighbouring pro-Russian region of Luhansk had been due to go into effect on Friday.
But the local separatist leader said that his side remained unhappy with the truce terms and was seeking further talks.
“Nothing firm has been signed,” Igor Plotnitsky told Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency. “We have come across issues that need further work and clarification.”
The two deals were meant to reinforce a comprehensive peace deal signed by all sides on September 5 that called for a 30-kilometre buffer zone and granted limited self-rule to the separatists.