KIEV/DONETSK, Ukraine: Intense fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine killed at least 19 civilians, local officials said yesterday, as Kiev pressed an offensive to close in on the separatists.
Ukrainian forces have been pushing rebel units back towards their two main urban strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk and have sought to encircle them in several places, including in the wider area where a Malaysian airliner crashed on July 17.
Insurgents said Monday Ukrainian forces seized control of part of the vast site where Malaysian airliner MH17 crashed, as the United Nations announced the downing of the plane could constitute a war crime.
After explosions and fighting blocked a new attempt by Australian and Dutch police to access the east Ukraine crash site, Kiev confirmed that its troops had now entered a string of towns around the scene, including Shakhtarsk, 10 kilometres away.
The unarmed international mission was forced to turn back for the second day running before reaching the site, where the remains of some of the 298 victims of the July 17 disaster still lie in the fields.
Officials said 14 people, including five children, were killed in fighting on Monday evening in the town of Gorlovka/Horlivka, one of several spots that saw fierce battles between the rival forces in the last few days.
In the city of Luhansk, officials said five civilians were killed when shelling hit a retirement home.
“The enemy is throwing everything it has into the battle to complete encirclement of the DNR,” rebel commander Igor Strelkov told journalists in Donetsk on Monday evening, referring to the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic”.
“We were astonished by how much amour they threw into this battle,” said Strelkov, a Russian national, sporting a camouflage T-shirt and trousers.
A rebel source in Donetsk said reinforcements including military equipment and fighters had crossed the nearby border with Russia into Ukraine. Reuters was not able to confirm that independently.
Rebel leaders insist publicly that Moscow is not supplying them. Russia also denies Western accusations that it is supporting the rebellion with arms and troops.
Leaders of the United States and major European powers agreed in a teleconference on Monday to impose wider sanctions on Russia’s banking, technology and arms sectors over its alleged backing for the separatists.
The rebels say 7,400 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured since Kiev launched what it calls its “anti-terrorist” operation against separatists in the east in early May. Kiev puts the toll at fewer than 1,500.
A humanitarian corridor was due to open in Luhansk for six hours yesterday to allow residents to flee the fighting, but officials said they could not guarantee full safety. The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have already fled Ukraine’s tumultuous east. — Reuters