Heavy artillery fire yesterday rocked eastern Ukraine’s pro-Russia rebel bastion of Donetsk, after international monitors spoke against escalating violence following the arrival of columns of suspected insurgent reinforcements.
The explosions of mortars being fired from near the center toward Ukrainian government positions at the ruined airport rumbled on from early in the morning, setting off car alarms, an Agence France-Presse correspondent said.
Donetsk’s city hall said in a statement: “The sound of artillery fire and explosions can be heard in all districts.”
Photo: AFP
Ukraine’s military said one soldier had been killed and two wounded, including one at the airport, as its positions came under repeated shelling around the region yesterday.
The intensified shelling, the heaviest since the weekend, comes after observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in eastern Ukraine said that growing clashes could tip the region back into all-out conflict, despite a ceasefire deal.
A frequently violated truce has been in place in the east of the former Soviet republic since September. It has halted clashes along much of the frontline, but not stopped bombardments at strategic flashpoints.
Ukrainian forces also accused the rebels of trying to capture a strategic location along the volatile front line delineated as part of the ceasefire deal, an area north of the second-largest rebel stronghold Luhansk. The Luhansk regional governor, who is loyal to Kiev, said there were increased artillery bombardments along the front line close to the city.
A spokesman for the OSCE, which is monitoring the ceasefire, said on Tuesday that there was a “rising” risk of an escalation in the conflict, which has claimed more than 4,000 lives in total since April, according to UN figures.
Earlier on Tuesday, OSCE observers reported seeing a convoy of 43 unmarked military trucks — five towing heavy artillery pieces and another five towing multilaunch rocket systems — traveling into the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
It was the latest in a string of recent sightings of unmarked trucks and heavy weapons heading toward the frontline in rebel-controlled areas.
Ukraine and Western countries think they are Russian military materiel.
Russia has consistently denied that it is involved in the fighting in east Ukraine.
Ukraine’s envoy to the UN, Yuriy Sergeyev, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that Kiev is now convinced that Moscow is planning a “full-scale invasion into Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing renewed Western diplomatic pressure over the issue during a week of high-level international talks.
Putin discussed Ukraine with US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott at a trade summit in Beijing.
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