Signs of war are everywhere — Ukraine’s government fears this area could be the focus of the next rebel offensive. Tanks and armored personnel carriers face east, toward the village of Shyrokyne, a no-man’s land.
A Ukrainian commander, identified for this story only by his code name of Tank, said a soldier of the Ukrainian National Guard's Donbas battalion was killed and another injured last week.
“There never was any cease-fire," he said. "No Minsk [agreement] has ever been fulfilled here. ... We were in Lysychansk, there was no cease-fire. We were in Debaltseve, and there was no cease-fire. So it is like this. We cannot respond, and they just keep killing our boys.”
The soldiers outside Shyrokyne are not Ukrainian army members but volunteer militiamen. Igor was a taxi driver before he joined the Donbas battalion. He said the separatist forces attack them every day.
“If we talk about what happens here, then the previous night was the hardest one," he said. "They’ve tried to attack us from the north. They’ve been shooting with automatic guns and shelling."
Rumors of Russian forces building for attack on the border continue. Tank said his forces were committed to protecting Mariupol.
“We’re not going anywhere," he said, "because it’s a matter of safety of our citizens. If they [the rebels] will take control over Shyrokyne, they will have a strategic high position to be shelling Mariupol.”
Soldiers in the area blame separatist forces for breaking the cease-fire, saying they were still using tanks, despite being obliged by the agreement to withdraw. But the Donbas battalion acknowledged that Ukrainian forces were still returning fire.
With constant exchanges of fire, in a conflict that has left more than 6,000 dead since April, one can only wonder how much it will take to doom any pretense of a cease-fire agreement.
http://www.voanews.com/content/fighting-rages-outside-mariupol-despite-cease-fire/2689829.html
21/3/15
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- Kiev increases troops along line of contact in Donbass - DPR defence ministry...
"In recent weeks the number of servicemen of Ukraine’s regular army and the National Guard has considerable increased in the adjoining areas," Basurin said. "Mostly, the troops are fresh draftees who have been deceived into going to Donbass after short-term training. At the same time, demobilised Ukrainian troops are several times lower in number leaving those areas."
The Ukrainian military have been supplied with new weapons on the line of contact, Basurin said.
http://tass.ru/en/world/784209
21/3/15
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Russia on Saturday urged France and Germany to persuade the Ukrainian authorities to observe the Minsk agreements...
ReplyDelete"(France and Germany should) exert influence on the Ukrainian authorities, so that the obligations supported by Petro Poroshenko as President of Ukraine could be fulfilled," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview aired by TV channel Rossiya One.
Russia will make efforts for the strict implementation of the Minsk agreements, as the urgent task now is to deal with Ukrainian law on the status of Donbass, which deviates from the Minsk accords, said Lavrov.
"It's necessary to introduce the law on special status immediately, in line with what has been agreed upon, rather than to delay the process as the Ukrainian authorities hope to win back territories by force," Lavrov said.
Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday amended the law on granting a "special status" to the rebel-controlled areas and declared such areas as "temporarily occupied territories."
Meanwhile, Lavrov accused Kiev's initiative of peacekeeper deployment in Ukraine as "a deceptive maneuver" to divert attention from Ukraine's nonfulfillment of the Minsk agreements..................http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/913345.shtml
22/3/15