Ukraine’s military repelled a wave of rebel assaults on Donetsk Airport on Saturday, rushing in new troops and ammunition to the battle zone as the government prepares for a visit by neighboring Poland’s prime minister.
Pro-Russia separatists created an “epicenter of tension” as they used artillery, mortars and rifle fire in a bid to pry government troops from their tenuous hold on the strategically important site, authorities in the capital, Kiev, said.
Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 18 were wounded in the first 24 hours of the weekend, Ukranian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in Kiev.
Photo: EPA
AIRPORT ASSAULT
“The confrontation is ongoing at Donetsk airport,” Lysenko said. “Militants attacked Ukrainian positions near the new terminal and weather tower. Ukrainian soldiers are repelling the attacks by the terrorists.”
The week-long effort by separatists to take the regional airport rekindles the prospects of all-out war in the former Soviet republic.
More than 4,800 people have died in the nine-month conflict, which has poisoned Russia’s ties with its former Cold War foes. Russia rejects accusations by Ukraine, the US, the EU and NATO that it is meddling in the conflict by sending troops and weapons.
EU SUPPORTER
Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz is to land in Kiev today to meet with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, according to the Ukrainian government’s Web site.
Poland has been the most vocal EU supporter of the Ukrainian government that emerged from last year’s street protests that led to the ouster of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
With the cancelation last week of peace talks planned in Minsk, the capital of neighboring Belarus, and Astana in Kazakhstan, fighting has picked up.
Lysenko said military officials recorded a wave of 82 separate attacks by militants earlier in the weekend.
SHELLING
Pro-Russia fighters shelled residential areas near the airport yesterday with artillery and multiple-launch Grad rocket systems after attacks on the airport were turned back, the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said online. Russian-made
Grads were also used in residential areas in the Luhansk region, it added. Ukrainian government positions and residential areas were attacked 19 times by 2pm on Saturday, it said.
RUSSIAN ACTIONS
Russia is amassing troops and armaments at the border with Ukraine and is testing new weapons in the conflict area, Lysenko said. Ukrainian government soldiers were struggling to evacuate wounded people from the airport as a “fierce fight” resumed on Saturday afternoon, council said on its Web site.
The Ukrainian government ordered roads closed for bus and truck traffic in the Luhansk region while insurgents attacked civilians, Luhansk Regional Governor Hennadiy Moskal said on his Web site.
One civilian was killed and four wounded yesterday after militants shelled the town of Popasna at 3pm, he said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese