Ukraine crisis: more shelling and fighting after Minsk ceasefire agreed
Separatist authorities said shelling killed three civilians and wounded five more in the rebel stronghold of Luhansk, while Ukraine’s military said eight soldiers lost their lives and a further 34 were injured across the conflict area.
European leaders have privately voiced fears that an upsurge in fighting before a truce is supposed to take hold in eastern Ukraine on Sunday could quickly turn into a bloodbath. A pact was struck in Minsk on Thursday morning after an all-night summit involving the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France.
“In the Donbass (eastern Ukraine), this night was not a calm one. The enemy shelled positions of the ‘anti-terrorist operation’ forces with the same intensity as before,” a statement by the Ukrainian military said.
Fighting had been particularly intense around Debaltseve, a key railway junction linking the two main rebel areas, where separatists had used rockets and artillery to attack up to 8,000 government forces holding the town, the statement said.Following military action and shelling … Ukraine lost eight service personnel and 34 others were wounded,” military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said.
An AFP journalist in rebel-held Donetsk said that sporadic missile salvos and dozens of artillery bombardments could be heard from the city starting early on Friday morning.
The ceasefire agreed in Minsk on Thursday was intended to pave the way for a comprehensive political settlement of the country’s crisis, and followed a fraught 16 hours of overnight negotiations.
The marathon summit resulted in a pact providing for a ceasefire between Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed separatists from Sunday, a withdrawal of heavy weaponry from the battle zone that is to be demilitarised, amnesties on both sides and exchanges of prisoners and hostages.
The ceasefire and weapons pullback is to be monitored by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
But the agreement is clearly fragile, previous attempts at a truce have failed, and expectations were high on Thursday of an upsurge in fighting ahead of the weekend deadline.
“The next 48 hours will be crucial,” said one EU diplomat at a summit in Brussels dominated by the Ukraine breakthrough.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, cautioned against over-optimism after Minsk and was guarded about whether the 13-point peace pact would be observed and implemented. “We have a glimmer of hope ... but no illusions,” she said.
On Thursday night, after the Brussels summit, the leaders of Germany, France and the European Council said wider sanctions were possible if Russia violated the ceasefire agreement.
US officials also said they were not taking sanctions off the table and bluntly warned the separatists against seizing more land before Sunday’s ceasefire formally takes effect.
David Cameron, the British prime minster, likewise urged EU leaders to stand firm on maintaining sanctions against Russia, saying it was “actions on the ground rather than just words on a piece of paper” that mattered.
Cameron, speaking from Brussels, said he welcomed the efforts made to bring an end to the conflict, but insisted that the ceasefire must be genuine.
“I welcome and thank [French president] François Hollande and Angela Merkel for the hard work that they have put in,” he said. “If this is a genuine ceasefire, then of course that would be welcome.”