Ukraine rebels reject truce
MOSCOW – Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk rejected an existing cease-fire arrangement on Friday, saying they would not initiate further peace talks, as their leader announced plans to expand rebel territory – moves that all but guarantee fresh confrontations in eastern Ukraine.
Alexander Zakharchenko, head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, said the rebels were regaining ground from Ukrainian government forces and will not stop until they control the entire Donetsk region. He also warned Ukrainian security forces that rebels will no longer take prisoners, meaning troops in their way now face a fight-or-die scenario.
Pro-Russian rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk have theoretically been under a cease-fire with Ukrainian forces since September. But the agreement was always tenuous, and recent clashes had pushed it to the brink of collapse. Zakharchenko’s deputy, Eduard Basurin, was quoted by the separatist-run Donetsk News Agency on Friday as saying that separatists no longer recognized the agreement signed in Minsk, Belarus – although, he added, the rebels were open to negotiations.
But Zakharchenko made it clear that to get rebels back to the table, Kyiv would have to make a bold first step, such as sending Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to negotiate. “There will be no more attempts to speak about a cease-fire on our part,” Zakharchenko told a group of university students Friday.
Rebel forces opposed to Kyiv’s Western-leaning policies were emboldened after the partial withdrawal of Ukrainian military units Thursday from the Donetsk airport, a key battleground.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said Friday that Kyiv’s forces will observe the lines set by the Minsk cease-fire accords, despite claims that rebels have carried out steady attacks.
But Kyiv has not shown any sign that it intends to back down if fired on.
“We will fight back,” Poroshenko said during a meeting Thursday with security officials.
Zakharchenko said rebels would fight the Ukrainian military “to the borders of the Donetsk region,” citing current gains.
Military officials in Kyiv expressed skepticism about his claims, arguing that the rebels had gained no territory beyond that around Checkpoint 31 in Luhansk region.
“To speak about how realistic these messages are, it’s very difficult,” Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, told reporters Friday. “Those statements, that they will stop the peace? There has never been a day when they didn’t shell.”
The United Nations on Friday raised its estimate of deaths in the Ukraine conflict to almost 5,100 since fighting began in April.