Ukraine traded accusations with pro-Russian separatists over the biggest …

Ukraine Truce Threatened by Clashes as NATO Holds Drills.

Ukraine traded accusations with
pro-Russian separatists over the biggest outbreak of hostilities
since a truce was signed 11 days ago.

The airport in Donetsk, the biggest city in the conflict
zone, was shelled all day, with government troops attacked near
13 villages and towns, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said at
briefing in Kyiv yesterday, adding that the Ukrainian army was
observing the cease-fire. The assertions were contradicted by
separatist authorities in Donetsk, which said their forces held
fire while their positions were shelled more than 40 times
during the past 24 hours, killing 20 people.

The clashes are throwing the Sept. 5 cease-fire into
further doubt as Ukrainian lawmakers prepare today to meet
President Petro Poroshenko and his top military commander at a
closed session in parliament. The U.S. and other NATO countries
began military exercises yesterday in Ukraine, which says Russia
has about 25,000 troops along the border and more than 3,000
soldiers inside the country. The government in Moscow denies
involvement in the conflict.

“My concern is that it is in Russia’s interests to
establish new, protracted, frozen conflicts in the region,”
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a
conference yesterday in Brussels. “Russia has used economic
pressure and military action to produce instability, to
manufacture conflicts and to diminish the independence of its
neighbors.”

Kerry, Lavrov

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief made his
remarks as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a conference on Iraq in Paris.
The top diplomats had a “constructive conversation” and
discussed holding further talks, Kerry told reporters.

The U.S. is concerned about renewed clashes and has no
details on the content of a Russian convoy that entered and left
Ukraine during the weekend, a State Department official said.
The shipment, carried out without the approval of or inspection
by the Ukrainian authorities, was “illegal, in breach of
Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the European
Union said in an e-mailed statement.

The second Russian convoy of 220 trucks entered and left
Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
said. All vehicles crossed into Ukraine without being inspected
by Ukrainian border guards, customs officers or the
International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the OSCE.
The OSCE cited Russian officials as saying the convoy carried
only food products.

3,000 Lives

The conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives, according
to the United Nations, and clashes have occurred daily since a
truce took effect. Six civilians were killed and 15 were injured
by shelling in Donetsk two days ago, the city council said on
its website. The situation in Donetsk remained tense as of 6
p.m. yesterday, with sounds of shelling and shooting still
audible, it said.

Militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic
were using guns and mortars to try to break through Ukrainian
troop lines near Panteleymonivka north of Donetsk, the Ukrainian
military said. Three Ukrainian border soldiers were wounded near
the southern city of Mariupol when they were returning from
patrol duty in a car , the Ukrainian state border service said.

The ruble fell to a record low for a third day amid concern
the crisis will deepen.

NATO Drills

The U.S. is participating in an annual training exercise in
Ukraine with 14 other nations, according to a statement from
Navy Captain Greg Hicks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command.

The two-week field training exercise, which won’t use live
ammunition, was planned before the outbreak of hostilities in
Ukraine, Hicks said. About 1,300 military personnel from NATO
members the U.S., the U.K., Poland, Germany and Canada as well
as Georgia and other countries, will take part in the exercise
with Ukrainian forces near Yavoriv, Hicks said.

The exercise, dubbed Rapid Trident, in western Ukraine
bordering Poland, is taking place about 1,200 kilometers (750
miles) from the fighting in Donetsk.

The U.S. on Sept. 12 expanded sanctions against Russia to
Include OAO Sberbank (SBER), the country’s largest bank, because of the
fighting in eastern Ukraine. The EU added 15 companies,
including Gazprom Neft (GAZ), OAO Rosneft (ROSN) and Transneft, and 24 people
to its own list of those affected by its restrictions.