KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine (Reuters) – Fighting raged in eastern Ukraine yesterday as pro-Russian separatists used artillery fire to try to dislodge government forces from a strategic rail hub after peace talks collapsed.
Hopes of easing the situation evaporated on Saturday with Ukraine’s representative and separatist envoys accusing each other of sabotaging negotiations.
“Fighting continues across all sections of the frontline,” Kiev military spokesman Volodymyr Polyovy said in a briefing, noting that some 13 soldiers had been killed in the past 24 hours. Other Ukrainian authorities said at least 13 civilians had also been killed in attacks.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which took part in the talks in Minsk, Belarus, along with envoys from Ukraine and Russia, said rebel delegates had not been ready to discuss crucial points of a peace plan.
“In fact, they were not even prepared to discuss implementation of a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons,” the OSCE said in a statement.
It said rebels had instead pushed for a revision of a ceasefire plan agreed on in Minsk last September.
The terms of that 12-point protocol have been repeatedly violated, but Kiev and foreign governments see it as the only viable roadmap to end the nine-month-long conflict in which more than 5,000 people have been killed.
