Ukrainian forces battle for Horlivka
UKRAINIAN armed forces mounted a major onslaught against pro-Russian separatist fighters today in an attempt to gain control over key rebel stronghold Horlivka.
The National Security Council in Kyiv said that government troops had encircled the city and that there had been fighting in other cities in the east.
Armed forces “have increased assaults on territory held by pro-Russian mercenaries, destroyed checkpoints and positions and moved very close to Horlivka,” it said in a statement.
A representative of the separatist military command in Donetsk confirmed that there had been fighting in Horlivka, but he insisted that rebel fighters were holding their positions.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that a column of Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers, trucks and tanks had entered the strategic town of Shakhtarsk.
By controlling the town, the Ukrainian army would cut off vital rebel supply lines.
Local media reported fighting in the towns of Snizhne and Torez.
The government accused rebel forces of firing rockets yesterday at residential blocks of flats in Horlivka in what they said was an attempt to discredit the army and whip up anti-government sentiment.
But the self-declared “Donetsk People’s Republic” has accused the army of being responsible for that and other rocket attacks in nearby cities.
New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned Ukrainian government forces last week for what it said was its practice of using unguided rockets in populated urban areas.
It warned that use of the rockets was a violation of international humanitarian law that “may amount to war crimes.”
The US State Department released images from the Director of National Intelligence yesterday that allegedly show that Russia has been firing rockets more than seven miles into eastern Ukraine in support of separatist forces.
Kyiv’s renewed military offensive forced the cancellation yesterday of a visit by a team of Dutch and Australian police officers to the site of the downed Malaysian civilian airliner.
Monitoring team deputy head Alexander Hug said that it was too dangerous for the unarmed officers to travel there from their current location in Donetsk.