UPDATE 2-More Ukrainian soldiers killed as fighting rages in east, peace move …
* 11 more Ukrainian soldiers killed
* Ukrainian fighter plane hit by rebel missile
* War of words intensified between Ukraine and Russia
(Adds new information on peace talks, warplane hit by missile)
By Richard Balmforth and Anton Zverev
KYIV/DONETSK, Ukraine July 16 (Reuters) – Pro-Moscow
separatists battled to break through lines of government forces
near the border with Russia in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, and
a tentative step towards agreeing a ceasefire in the
intensifying three-month conflict failed.
Fighting has escalated sharply since Ukrainian forces pushed
rebels out of their stronghold in the town of Slaviansk 10 days
ago. The past several days have seen Russia and Ukraine trade
accusations of firing across the border.
Ukraine’s military said 11 more troops were killed in the
space of 24 hours, mostly in clashes near the frontier.
Ukraine has been trying to put down a revolt by
heavily-armed fighters, many of them from Russia, who have
sought independence for two eastern provinces since April.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March after a
pro-Russian president was ousted in Kyiv. Moscow denies
supporting the separatists in eastern Ukraine, but Kyiv says
many of the fighters and their leaders have travelled from
Russia and brought heavy weapons across the border.
Ukrainian troops have focussed their efforts in recent days
on securing the frontier to prevent the arrival of more fighters
and weapons. Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine’s defence and
security council, told journalists the separatists had attacked
government positions along the border overnight.
Government troops had been ambushed by separatists at
Izvarino on the border and there had been early morning clashes
near the border settlement of Stepanivka when separatists tried
to break out of encirclement by the army, he said.
“There was tank and mortar fire and from rockets on
positions of the (Ukrainian) ‘anti-terrorist operation’,”
Lysenko said. The number of casualties was being established.
Two days after the downing of a government An-26 transport
plane, Ukrainian warplanes had been given the go-ahead to resume
flights over the east, Lysenko said. Kyiv says it believes the
transporter was hit by a missile fired from Russia.
A separate SU-25 fighter plane was hit by a rebel rocket on
Wednesday, but the pilot made a successful emergency landing and
there was only slight damage to the aircraft, the defence
ministry said. No-one was hurt.
ESCALATION
The escalation in recent days has once more raised the
prospect that Moscow could intervene directly in Ukraine, after
weeks in which President Vladimir Putin had appeared keen to
disengage. Putin had withdrawn tens of thousands of troops he
had massed at the frontier, but Kyiv says their numbers have
again been rising as troops are returning to the border area.
In telephone conversations with German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko set out evidence of
fighters crossing into Ukraine from Russia with heavy military
equipment, his website said.
“Everything which is happening in Ukraine has been planned
by Russia since 2004. Putin has a clear plan and that is to
destroy Ukraine and establish his influence over post-Soviet
space,” Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said in a speech carried
by his website.
Around 270 Ukrainian servicemen and hundreds of civilians
and rebels have been killed since the government launched an
“anti-terrorist” operation in April to crush the rebels.
Lysenko said that in Slaviansk, the former rebel stronghold
re-taken by government forces this month, “hundreds of bodies
of…(rebel) fighters” had been found in shallow graves.
“Some of these graves have been mined by the terrorists,”
he said. He gave no further details. The government has given
high figures for rebel casualties in the past that could not be
verified.
Efforts to forge a truce have so far failed. A “contact
group” of officials from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it tried on
Tuesday to re-activate peace talks – but a planned video link-up
with separatists never materialised.
“In the opinion of the contact group, this indicates a lack
of willingness on the side of separatists to engage in
substantive talks on a mutually agreed ceasefire,” it said in a
statement. It urged separatists to return to talks immediately.
Aleksander Borodai, “prime minister” of the rebels’
self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, later told
journalists the video-link might now take place on Thursday
evening. There was no immediate confirmation of this from the
“contact group”.
Since losing Slaviansk, hundreds of rebel fighters have
moved to the industrial city of Donetsk, vowing to make a stand.
The city which had a pre-conflict population of nearly 1
million, has been steadily emptying as thousands, fearing a
government offensive, have fled.
There are now fewer and fewer people out on the streets and
few cars in what was once a bustling city. Most banks, shops and
bars have closed, cash-dispensers have been switched off and
street traffic lights no longer work.
Lyudmila, 35, who was leaving Donetsk, said: “I have been
forced to gather up my things and get away from this lawless
genocide. I am simply saving my children. My husband is staying
behind. I have left my home and my work. I am leaving to save my
children.”
(Additional reporting by Natalya Zinets in Kyiv)