At least 26 killed as Ukraine ceasefire nears
A number of artillery attacks have hit areas near the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, as the deadline for a ceasefire creeps closer, officials said.
The city’s press service reported half a dozen rocket and mortar attacks on outlying areas this morning. There was no immediate information on casualties.
Mariupol is on the Azov Sea and there are fears that Russian-backed separatists aim to seize it as a step towards establishing a corridor between mainland Russia and the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed 11 months ago.
Ukraine news agency quoted Petro Mekhed, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, as saying that separatist forces had been tasked with hoisting their flags over Debaltseve, as well as the key port city of Mariupol, before the ceasefire takes hold.
Under an agreement reached this week, rebels and Ukrainian forces are to observe a ceasefire beginning at midnight local time (10pm Irish time).
Yesterday, Russian-backed separatists mounted a vicious assault in eastern Ukraine, pummelling a strategic railway hub with wave upon wave of shelling in a last-minute grab for territory.
At least 26 people were killed across the region.
The fiercest confrontations focused on the government-held town of Debaltseve, a key transport centre that has been on the receiving end of dozens of artillery and rocket salvos in the 24-hour period after the peace deal was sealed by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France.
Even as the peace deal was announced on Thursday, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko appeared to disagree over the Debaltseve’s future. Mr Putin said the rebels consider the Ukrainian forces there surrounded and expect them to surrender, while Ukraine insisted its troops have not been blocked.
