was destroyed after shelling between pro-Russian separatists and
Ukrainian forces.
(c) AFP)
At least 19 soldiers and civilians were killed in clashes across east
Ukraine as fierce fighting raged Sunday between government forces and
pro-Russian rebels following the collapse of ceasefire talks.
Ukraine's military said that 13 soldiers had died and 20 were wounded
over the past 24 hours, pushing the military death toll over the past
two days to 28.
Six civilians also died in fighting across the rebels' self-declared
Donetsk People's Republic and in Kiev-controlled towns in Lugansk
region, government officials and separatists said.
The latest casualty reports came as Ukraine's two warring sides looked
further than ever from agreeing a peace deal after the collapse of
truce talks Saturday.
Mediators and Ukrainian representatives accused the separatists of
scuppering an agreement despite growing international pressure to
defuse a bloody upsurge in fighting that has left scores dead in
recent days.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which
is involved in the talks along with Russia, said that rebel
negotiators in Minsk "were not even prepared to discuss implementation
of a ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons."
Instead the insurgent representatives called for a total revision of
an earlier Kremlin-backed peace plan signed in September that has
formed the basis for all negotiations, the OSCE said in a statement.
The rebels say they now want to redraw the demarcation line between
the two sides to include gains they have made since ripping up a shaky
truce and pushing into Ukrainian territory.
Kiev has rebuffed this demand and said the rebels' position has thrown
any future peace talks into doubt.
"Unfortunately the peace process is now under threat," Valeriy Chaly,
the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration wrote on his
Facebook page.
- 'Constant battles' -
The fiercest fighting on the ground is focused around the strategic
town of Debaltseve, a railway hub between rebel bastions Donetsk and
Lugansk, where rebels are trying to encircle government forces.
Ukraine military spokesman Volodymyr Polyovyi said that "constant
battles" were ongoing around the town but denied insurgent claims that
they have trapped some 8,000 government troops.
Civilians who have fled describe increasingly dire conditions in the
town -- which once had a population of some 25,000 -- with water and
electricity cut and the remaining inhabitants living in underground
shelters.
Western governments and Ukraine have accused Russia of sending regular
troops and arms to bolster the rebels and spearhead the latest
offensive -- claims Moscow has repeatedly denied.
The rebels, however, are equipped with the heavy weaponry of a regular
army, hardware they claim to have captured from fleeing Ukrainian
forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande
and German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked to each other by phone
ahead of the peace meeting on Saturday, urging the warring factions to
agree a truce in fighting that has left at least 5,100 people dead.
Moscow -- suffering the economic impact of harsh Western sanctions over
the Ukraine crisis -- reacted cautiously to the collapse of the talks,
saying that they "needed time to evaluate them."
The 28-nation EU on Thursday extended through September a first wave
of targeted sanctions it had slapped on Moscow and Crimean leaders in
the wake of Russia's March seizure of the Black Sea peninsula from
Ukraine.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to jet into Kiev on Thursday
to pledge Washington's support for the war-torn nation during talks
with President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
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