Tension High In Eastern Ukraine As Kremlin, Kyiv Trade Blame
Tension is high in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatists has flared over the past three days.
The sides traded blame on January 31 for a surge in hostilities around the government-controlled town of Avdiyivka that has led to the highest casualty toll since mid-December.
Ukraine’s military said three of its soldiers were killed over the previous 24 hours, but it was unclear whether the figure included the three servicemen reported killed on January 30.
It said 24 other soldiers were wounded and that there were an unspecified number of civilian casualties.
The separatists said shelling caused casualties in the separatist-held provincial capital of Donetsk and damaged an electricity substation, cutting power to the Zasyadko coal mine and trapping more than 200 miners inside.
Many of them were later evacuated, they said.
Meanwhile, regional Governor Pavlo Zhebrivskyy said his office was working on a plan to evacuate thousands of civilians in Avdiyivka as shelling left many residents of the town north of Donetsk without electricity, water supplies, and heating in temperatures well below freezing.
But the AFP news agency quoted the town's military administrator, Fridon Vekua, as saying that no final decision to evacuate had been made.
"We see it as our very last resort because there is still a chance of restoring heating," he said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cut a visit to Germany short on January 30, citing what his spokesman called "an emergency situation verging on a humanitarian disaster" around Avdiyivka, which is home to a giant coking plant.
Kyiv and Moscow also accused each other of launching offensives in Avdiyivka and firing heavy artillery in defiance of a deal signed in Minsk in February 2015 that called for a cease-fire and steps to end the conflict between Kyiv and the Russia-backed separatists.
"The current escalation in Donbas is a clear indication of Russia's continued blatant disregard of its commitments under the Minsk agreements with a view of preventing the stabilization of the situation and achieving any progress in the security and humanitarian spheres," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Donbas is a name for the industrialized corner of eastern Ukraine where the separatists hold parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the Ukrainian government of conducting "aggressive actions" in an effort to undermine the stalled peace process and draw attention away from domestic problems.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine has killed more than 9,750 people since April 2014.
Despite substantial evidence, Russia denies claims by Kyiv, NATO, and Western governments that it stirred up separatism in the region and has sent troops and weapons to Ukraine to support the separatists.
The European Union, United States, and other states have imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict, as well as for its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.