The latest dispatch by RFE/RL's Christopher Miller from the front lines in eastern Ukraine:
'Our Tanks Are Ready': Ukraine Braces For Escalation In Eastern War
AVDIYIVKA, Ukraine -- "Attack. Counterattack. Attack. Counterattack."
That's how Kyiv regiment commander Yevhen Deydey described the battlefield maneuvering taking place on February 2, as Russia-backed separatists stepped up attacks against Ukrainian government forces in this embattled eastern Ukrainian city for a fifth straight day.
Ukraine bolstered its defenses with scores more troops and large-caliber artillery, including main battle tanks, which were seen by RFE/RL trundling toward the front line and positioned in the courtyard of a nine-story apartment building pocked with massive holes from direct artillery strikes.
Our tanks are preparing for battle. This is a real escalation."-- Commander Yevhen Deydey
These sorts of heavy weaponry are supposed to remain well back from here, under a 2-year-old cease-fire deal that international monitors say has been routinely violated by Ukrainian forces and the Russia-backed separatists they are fighting.
"Our tanks are preparing for battle," Deydey said inside the Ukrainian Army's forward-most command center, peering out a shattered window at his arsenal standing by in the courtyard. "This is a real escalation."
The outburst of violence since January 29 has shattered a monthslong relative lull in fighting, pushed the city of Avdiyivka to the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe, and heightened fears that full-scale warfare could reignite at any moment.
The racket of small arms, mortars, howitzers, and even tank fire -- collectively referred to by soldiers as "the disco" -- never let up here on February 2, and, in fact, grew in intensity throughout the day. The rumbling of Grad rockets pierced the winter chill and came crashing down on military positions and civilian homes not in ones and twos but by the truckload. Each multiple-launch rocket system carries up to 40 of them.
Ukraine's military said fighting had pushed the death toll to at least 23 people, including civilians, since January 29 and closer to a total of 10,000 since the war erupted in April 2014.
Kyiv Raises Death Toll As 'Escalation' In Eastern Fighting Continues
By RFE/RL
AVDIYIVKA, Ukraine -- Kyiv has warned that an escalation of fighting it blames on "Russian occupational forces" is continuing in eastern Ukraine, where residents say "nonstop" shelling overnight on February 2-3 was the worst of a six-day surge in the hostilities.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze's office said four Ukrainian soldiers died and 17 more were wounded in shelling on February 2.
It said one civilian and an emergency serviceman had also been killed and two other civilians injured. Shelling also reportedly damaged a school that was being used to provide heating for civilians in the government-controlled city of Avdiyivka.
Klympush-Tsintsadze's office cited 114 instances of shelling and said Russia-backed forces were "attacking throughout" the so-called line of contact and in areas near the cities of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Mariupol.
Locals in Avdiyivka, an industrial city near the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, told an RFE/RL correspondent on February 3 of spending the night in cellars under near-constant bombardment.
Overnight shelling could be heard from tens of kilometers away.
UN, EU, and other international officials have issued urgent pleas for negotiations to avoid a "catastrophe" as pro-Kyiv forces and Russia-backed separatists clash in a conflict that has killed more than 9,750 people since April 2014.
The United States' UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, on February 2 blamed "aggressive actions" by Russia for the fresh violence and reiterated Washington's commitment to keeping Western sanctions against Moscow in place.
Russia, which denies military involvement despite substantial evidence, has blamed Kyiv for the latest fighting.
With reporting by RFE/RL correspondents Christopher Miller in Avdiyivka and Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels
The Daily Vertical: There's Only One Reason Why There's War In The Donbas
"Debating about who fired the first shots in Avdiyivka is not only ridiculous, it plays right into the hands of Vladimir Putin's propaganda machine," says RFE/RL's Brian Whitmore.
