Ukraine dispatched top envoys to Washington and Brussels on Wednesday to secure help in the face of a surge in clashes with pro-Russian insurgents that killed eight more civilians and troops.
A one-month truce in Ukraine is teetering on the verge of collapse just weeks before a general election meant to reunify the country after six months of conflict in the east that has killed nearly 3,400 people.
The number of civilians dead from shelling and mortar attacks grew to 19 since the weekend when Donetsk authorities reported three additional deaths in the main rebel-held city overnight.
Photo: Reuters
Reporters also saw the bodies of two victims of rocket fire that hit a supermarket and some residential buildings in a northeastern section of the half-deserted city that was once home to nearly 1 million people.
Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said fighters killed three and wounded 12 Ukrainian soldiers in renewed attacks.
Ukrainian authorities have reported the death of more than 100 troops and civilians since separatist leaders and Kiev signed a Sept. 5 truce that was backed by both Moscow and EU states.
However, the UN human rights office said the post-ceasefire toll up to Monday may be as high as 331.
“Tragically, the political agreement is not being observed,” Ukrainian Minister of Defense Valeriy Geletey said.
The crisis has torn at East-West relations and seen Russian President Vladimir Putin thrown into diplomatic isolation for what critics label a bid to break up his neighbor in retaliation for the ouster of a pro-Kremlin president in February.
Rebel leaders now intend to keep the Oct. 26 parliamentary polls from being staged across swathes of the Russian-speaking rustbelt that is home to nearly 5 million people.
They instead plan their own votes early next month that would set up parliaments and administrations allied to Moscow and intended to ensure complete self-rule.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has urged Russia to convince the fighters to resume political negotiations that could grant them broader rights within a single state.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to meet Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov next week in Paris in a bid to shore up the truce.
Kerry said following talks with his British counterpart Philip Hammond that more sanctions could follow against Moscow if it failed to withdraw its forces from eastern Ukraine.
However, the Kremlin denies having any hand in the conflict and accuses the West of trying to wrest the ex-Soviet country out of Russia’s sphere of influence.
Ukraine’s top policymakers traveled to NATO and EU headquarters in Brussels, as well as the main IMF office in Washington, to win further diplomatic and economic backing from Kiev’s new partners.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin shook hands for the first time with new NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg — a liberal former Norwegian premier who last week said the bloc was ready to seek constructive ties with Moscow.
“The NATO secretary-general has changed, but the priority importance of Ukraine remains the same,” Klimkin tweeted after the meeting.
He said the country would seek European Commission funding to help eastern residents survive the winter with limited access to essential supplies.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Central Bank Governor Valeria Gontareva was meeting with IMF boss Christine Lagarde in the hope of speeding up the delivery of a US$17.1 billion loan and even expanding the amount.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told his Cabinet that Gontareva would ask the IMF “to modify its program, taking current realities into account.”
The two-year IMF arrangement is part of a global US$27 billion package approved in April to help the new leaders avert a looming bankruptcy and pull Ukraine out of its third recession in six years.
However, the economic slide has only accelerated and is now expected to see the economy shrink by up to 9 percent this year.
The IMF itself warned last month that Ukraine may need an additional US$19 billion in short-term assistance should the eastern campaign stretch through the end of next year.
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