UKRAINE ATTACKS SEPARATISTS AFTER TRUCE FAILS
Donetsk, Ukraine, 4 Ramadan 1435/2 July 2014 (MINA) – Ukrainian tanks and fighter bombers have launched a ferocious assault against pro-Russian separatists after rejecting European attempts to save a tenuous 10-day truce.
Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, said on Tuesday that a “massive artillery and air offensive” had been unleashed in the eastern rustbelt – home to seven million mostly Russian speakers, Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
The regional administration of Donetsk, which along with Lugansk has declared its allegiance to Moscow, said four civilians were killed and five wounded when their bus came under fire near the town of Kramatorsk.
Both the rebels and Kiev confirmed a heavy tank battle was being waged near the Donetsk region town of Karlivka and that there were intense clashes in the nearby village of Mariinka.
Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan, reporting from the rebel-controlled eastern city of Kramatorsk, said that residential neighbourhoods were hit by shelling in the early morning of Tuesday.
At least three residential buildings and a school, which residents say served as a shelter, were also hit, our correspondent said.
He said some of the residential buildings were also used as an “impromptu barracks” by pro-Russia separatists.
Our correspondent also reported residents in the Kramatorsk area fleeing the city on buses heading to Russia.
Earlier, President Petro Poroshenko told the nation in an emotional late-night address that his peace plan for Ukraine’s worst crisis since independence was being used by the militias to regroup and stock up on heavy arms from Russia.
“After examining the situation I have decided, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, not to extend the unilateral ceasefire,” the 48-year-old said from his office.
“The separatists’ leaders have demonstrated their unwillingness and inability to control the actions of the terrorist units and marauding gangs under their control.”
Failed diplomacy
Poroshenko’s decision came just hours after the leaders of France and Germany joined him on a conference call to Russian President Vladimir Putin – the third such conversation in five days.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were in rare agreement with Putin that Poroshenko should extend the truce to give indirect talks between separatist commanders and Kiev a chance.
But the contacts have mostly failed to halt 11 weeks of fighting that have killed more than 450 people and shuttered dozens of coal mines and steel mills whose operation is vital to Ukraine’s teetering economy.
Russia immediately expressed its “deep regret” over Poroshenko’s decision while France’s foreign minister promised that there would be no letup to Western efforts to bring a lasting peace to Ukraine. (T/P09/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)