A newly-brokered Ukraine peace deal appeared on the verge of collapse on Monday as pro-Russian rebels pounded encircled Ukrainian government troops. Kiev said it would not pull back heavy guns from the town of Debaltseve while the truce was being violated.
The European Union kept pressure on Russia and the rebels by announcing a new list of separatists and Russians targeted with sanctions, to which Moscow promised an "adequate" response.
Fighting subsided in many parts of eastern Ukraine under the ceasefire that came into force on Sunday, under the deal reached last week in marathon talks involving the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
But the truce appears to have failed in the town of Debaltseve where the most intensive fighting has taken place in recent weeks.
“The situation is fragile,” said German chancellor Angela Merkel, a driving force behind the deal reached on Thursday after all-night talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
“It was always clear that much remains to be done. And I have always said that there are no guarantees that what we are trying to do succeeds. It will be an extremely difficult path,” she told reporters in Berlin.
Rebels said soon after the ceasefire came into effect that they had no intention of observing the deal at Debaltseve, where they have been advancing since January and now have a Ukrainian unit all but encircled.
Washington says the rebel operation around the town, which sits on a strategic railway hub, is being assisted by the Russian armed forces, which Moscow denies.
Relentless bombardment
Reuters reporters near the front said Debaltseve was being relentlessly bombarded with artillery. At least six tanks as well as armoured personnel carriers and artillery could be seen in woods near Vuhlehirsk, 10km west of Debaltseve, which the rebels captured a week ago.
Military trucks headed along the main road in the direction of the town to regular bursts of shelling and the firing of Grad rockets and machine guns.
“You can hear there is no ceasefire,” said a rebel fighter with a black ski mask who gave his name as Scorpion, his nom de guerre, and blamed the fighting on Kiev’s forces. “Debaltseve is our land. And we will take Debaltseve.”
A rebel commander, Eduard Basurin, said Ukrainian troops had violated the ceasefire 27 times in the past 24 hours.
Kiev said its forces had been shelled more than 100 times in eastern Ukraine since the truce took effect, five of its servicemen had been killed and 25 wounded, and that it could not carry out an agreement to pull back big guns in such conditions.
“The pre-condition for withdrawal of heavy weapons is fulfilling Point One of the Minsk agreements - the ceasefire. One hundred and twelve attacks are not an indicator of a ceasefire,” said a Kiev military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko.
A rebel leader, Denis Pushilin, responded by saying his forces were “only ready for a mutual withdrawal of equipment”.
Safe corridor
The separatists offered the Ukrainian forces a safe corridor out of Debaltseve if they gave up their weapons but a military spokesman for Kiev, Vladislav Seleznyov, ruled this out.
“There are the Minsk agreements, according to which Debaltseve is ours. We will not leave,” he said.
Fighting began in east Ukraine after the overthrow of a Moscow-backed president in Ukraine last February and Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula a month later.
The West says Mr Putin, who has called parts of Ukraine “New Russia”, has sent troops and weapons to back the rebels. Moscow denies this and accuses the West of waging a proxy war in Ukraine to seek “regime change” in Russia.
Hopes that Thursday’s deal will end a conflict that has killed more than 5,000 people have been dampened by the collapse of an earlier truce when rebels advanced last month.
Western countries say they reserve the option of expanding economic sanctions on Moscow over the crisis, hoping a growing financial crisis in Russia will persuade Mr Putin to use his influence with the rebels to stop the fighting. But some fear he wants the conflict to fester for years so that Kiev cannot control east Ukraine and Russia can retain influence there.
The EU’s new list of 19 people and nine organisations hit by asset freezes and travel bans was dominated by Ukrainian separatists but also targeted popular Russian singer Iosif Kobzon, sometimes dubbed Russia’s equivalent of Frank Sinatra, and two Russian deputy defence ministers.
“One thing is clear -- the decision, which will be followed by an adequate response, runs contrary to common sense and will not help efforts to find a solution to the inter-Ukrainian conflict,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Reuters