by The Daily Telegraph, January 31, 2017
The Russian and Ukrainian governments have traded blame over a surge in fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists that has killed more than ten people and injured dozens more since the weekend.
The fighting is the first significant violence in the war zone since Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president and could be seen as a key test of new administration’s stance on the crisis, including whether it will prolong sanctions imposed against Russia over its role in the war.
Ukrainian medical servicemen stand on an Armoured Personnel Carrier after carrying wounded soldiers to a hospital in Avdiivka on January 30.
Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have blamed one another for sparking a frenzy of shelling by heavy artillery and multiple rocket launchers that began on Sunday.
Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, shakes hand with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday.
The worst violence has been seen near Avdiivka, an industrial town north of Donetsk, where at least four Ukrainian soldiers were killed on Monday.
Four more soldiers were killed and 26 injured in the same area on Tuesday, Oleksandr Turchynov, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council, said on Tuesday.
OSCE observers talk with a local woman in Avdiivka on Monday, where a surge in fighting has killed at least ten people.
Donetsk News Agency, an outlet run by the separatist authorities, said on Tuesday that four fighters died and seven were injured overnight, as well as three civilians. One civilian was killed, the separatist authorities said.
The shelling has also hit critical infrastructure and left thousands of civilians on both sides of the lines without power as temperatures plunge to as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Eduard Basurin, a military spokesman for the separatists, said 207 miners were trapped underground after Ukrainian shelling knocked out an electricity substation.
All the miners trapped in the Zasyadko mine in Donetsk, which has a notorious safety record, had been brought to the surface by Tuesday afternoon.
Miners returning to the surface at the Zasyadko coal mine in Donetsk on Tuesday.
Ukrainian officials said separatist artillery hit central Avdiivka, damaging several civilian homes and also part of the town’s vast coking plant.
The factory’s director on Tuesday said the plant, which has operated almost uninterrupted since the war began in 2014, may have to suspend production if the level of violence continues.
Pavlo Zhebrivsky, the governor of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk region, said he and aides were putting to together a plan to evacuate the roughly 12,000 civilians still living in Avdiivka.
Miners leave the Zasyadko coal mine on Tuesday afternoon.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said its staff were working with civilians left without power on both sides of the lines.
The war in eastern Ukraine began in April 2014 when separatists supplied and sometimes assisted on the battlefield by Russia took up arms against the government in Kiev.
A ceasefire agreed by Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, in Minsk in February 2015 slowed but did not entirely stop the fighting.
The peace road map they agreed to, known as the Minsk process, is effectively deadlocked.
Donald Trump's election as US president and nascent rapprochement with Russia has prompted speculation about a shift in the US position on the conflict.
Mr Trump has speculated about cancelling the sanctions that Barack Obama, his predecessor, imposed on Russia over its involvement in the war in a bid to improve relations with Moscow.
Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president, said the recent violence proved sanctions should remain in place.
“Today for the first time in days Grad rocket launchers and heavy artillery were used against the civilian population and our units," Mr Poroshenko said in a statement on Tuesday evening
"The shelling is massive. Who would dare talking about lifting the sanctions in such circumstances? What additional proof is needed to bring the aggressors to justice?” he added.
The Russian government, which publicly denies involvement in the war, accused Ukraine of starting the fighting.
The Kremlin has "reliable information" that Ukrainian volunteer battalions crossed the front line Monday night and tried to capture rebel territory, Mr Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
The White House had not commented on the fighting by Tuesday evening.
However, the United States mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said a "combined Russian-separatist assault" was responsible for the attack.
"We call on combined Russian-separatist forces to recommit to the ceasefire to allow for repairs to critical infrastructure," Kate M. Byrnes, the acting deputy chief of mission of the US delegation, said in a statement.
Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, said: “The immediate priority must be security and a full sustained ceasefire, in line with the provisions of the Minsk agreements."
"I urge all parties to demonstrate restraint, and help facilitate crucial repairs to restore vital utilities and assist the vulnerable. Sanctions against Russia cannot be lifted until the Minsk commitments are fulfilled," he added in a statement.
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