Sustained Artillery Fire Reported in E. Ukraine
by VOA News September 06, 2014
Witnesses in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol reported sustained explosions outside the city late Saturday, in an area where Ukraine's troops are holding a defensive line against pro-Russian rebels.
It was not immediately clear whether the artillery fire described by Western reporters is an isolated incident or the first significant violation of a cease-fire declared Friday between rebels and the Kyiv government.
The cease-fire was approved at talks in Belarus by envoys from the Kyiv government, the separatist movement, Moscow and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Earlier Saturday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he spoke with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by telephone and the two agreed that the truce was generally being honored. Later in the day, however, both sides accused the other of breaking the truce in some locations.
'(The two leaders) also stressed the need for the maximum involvement of the OSCE in monitoring the situation ... and for cooperation in providing Ukrainian and international humanitarian help,' according to statements released by the Kremlin and Poroshenko's office.
In Donetsk, the largest city controlled by the Russian-backed separatists, news reports said the night was quiet, but a top separatist leader was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency that there had been two rounds of shelling in a town southeast of Donetsk.
"At this time the cease-fire agreement is not being fully observed,' Alexander Zakharchenko, the top separatist leader from Donetsk, was quoted as saying.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a posting to Twitter that its aid trucks headed to Luhansk were forced to turn back because of shelling.
Additionally, Ukraine defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters that Kyiv was prepared to exchange prisoners, as part of the truce, despite reports of skirmishes by both sides.
Possible New Sanctions
As regional tensions continued to simmer Saturday, Russia — accused by the West of supporting the rebellion — vowed to retaliate if the European Union imposes a new round of economic sanctions next week.
The new sanctions were given preliminary approval Friday night and could be implemented as early as Monday. The Associated Press, citing an unnamed EU diplomat, said the new measures would target Russia's access to capital markets and trade in arms and defense technology, dual-use goods and sensitive technologies.
'There will undoubtedly be a reaction from our side' if additional sanctions are taken, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, without specifying what the reaction might be. But Western governments have in recent weeks imposed several rounds of economic penalties on Moscow for its widely perceived role in the rebellion, and Moscow has retaliated with sanctions of its own.
The EU 'would do better to work on supporting the economic revival' of eastern Ukraine, the ministry said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he was both 'hopeful' and 'skeptical' that the cease-fire would hold. He also emphasized the West is prepared to impose more sanctions on Moscow if the crisis is reignited.
The deal was approved Friday by envoys from the Kyiv government, the separatist movement, Moscow and the OSCE. The deal is part of a Russian-authored peace proposal that envisions an exchange of prisoners and safety guarantees for refugees and aid workers.
Poroshenko said earlier that the cease-fire protocol included 12 steps for establishing 'peace and stability' in eastern Ukraine while respecting his country's 'sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.'
The agreement also contains provisions decentralizing power and protecting the Russian language in Russian-speaking border regions.
Orysia Lutsevych, an analyst with the London-based think-tank Chatham House, said the big question is what the Russian troops on the ground in eastern Ukraine will be doing now that the cease-fire is in place.
"Are they withdrawing? Or perhaps President Putin is planning to re-format it into some kind of peacekeeping operation?" she asked.
"Perhaps President Putin has already achieved his goal to create a weak neighbor, Ukraine — to prevent its integration towards the West by establishing a 'frozen conflict' in the Donbass region,' she said.
The rebellion in eastern Ukraine launched in April has killed more than 2,600 people and created tens of thousands of refugees fleeing areas near the Russian border. Both Ukraine and NATO accuse Moscow of providing direct help to separatists.
For its part, Russia has consistently denied the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, while rebel leaders say they have been helped by Russian soldiers who have used their vacation time to battle Ukrainian troops on Ukrainian soil.
NATO Holds Training Exercise
Also Saturday, NATO forces launched a major military training exercise 250 kilometers from the Russian border, in what is being described as a practical demonstration of support for Baltic states facing an assertive Russia.
The maneuvers near the Latvian capital, Riga, involved aircraft, vehicles and about 500 U.S., Canadian and Italian paratroopers in a joint exercise at an airbase southeast of the city.
The maneuvers, launched late Friday, came just hours after NATO leaders attending a summit in Britain agreed to step up exercises in eastern Europe with a new rapid-reaction force, in response to Russian actions in Ukraine.
The Latvia exercises are part of a larger NATO operation also under way in Estonia, Germany, Lithuania and Poland. Some 2,000 soldiers from nine NATO countries are participating in the drills, which are set to end Monday.
VOA's Henry Ridgewell contributed to this report from London. Some information for this report comes from Reuters.
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