More than 20 people have been killed during a five-day escalation of violence between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists that has reignited fears of full-scale warfare in the region.
The two sides have been exchanging mortar and rocket fire around the flashpoint eastern town of Avdiivka that sits just north of the Russian-backed rebels’ de-facto capital of Donetsk, Agence France-Presse reported.
The shelling of the government-controlled factory town left more than 20,000 residents without heat or water in freezing winter weather and authorities scrambling to provide relief.
The violence, which has drawn international condemnation, erupted after a relative lull in 33 months of bloodshed that has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people.
And the fighting comes at a potential watershed moment for Ukraine as it seeks to maintain US support despite President Trump’s bid to mend ties with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.
The US State Department said it still supported Ukraine’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the BBC reported. But, in a change of tone from the Obama administration, gone is any blame on Russia for failing to rein the separatist forces in.
Moscow and Kiev have traded blame over who sparked the latest violence but AFP reporters witnessed the rebels on the offensive.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected Russian claims that Kiev has ramped up the violence to stir international concern as “both absurd and completely untrue.”
Kiev worries that Putin wants to exert his authority on eastern Ukraine to give him leverage over Trump on other global issues.
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg did not blame Russia directly but said that Moscow had “considerable influence” over the rebel forces now on the attack, AFP reported.
On Thursday morning, a rocket attack was launched on the outskirts of Avdiivka and a 61-year-old woman, identified as Faene, was killed in a shelling attack.
“Who is dying — and for what?” Russian-born Galina Nikolaivina, whose son is married to Faene’s daughter, told the BBC.
The insurgents said one of their fighters was killed.
“There is no lighting in the Avdiivka and we are keeping the local heating plant at the lowest temperature possible that would avoid its pipes from freezing,” the Ukrainian army’s 72 Brigade spokeswoman Olena Mokrynchuk told AFP.
Troops distributed gruel and tea to hundreds of people as shells exploded nearby.
“Right now we are making buckwheat and millet porridge,” a 40-year-old serviceman who gave his name only as Taras told AFP. “We hope to get some canned meat in the evening.”
Avdiivka was seized by separatists when the conflict started in April 2014 after the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader — but was recaptured by Kiev several months later.
Meanwhile, Ukraine launched a criminal probe Thursday after it said one of its military planes was shot at over the Black Sea during what Moscow condemned as a “dangerous flyby.”
The general prosecutor in Kiev said an attempted-murder case had been opened after an Antonov-26 transport plane was targeted Wednesday during a training flight over the Black Sea, where Russia operates drilling rigs it took over following its annexation of Crimea in 2014, AFP reported.
The plane — which Kiev insisted was over Ukrainian waters – was pierced by a bullet, but its crew members were not injured, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had summoned Kiev’s military attache to complain about what it said were “two dangerous flybys at an extremely low altitude” over the drilling platforms.
“The actions of the Ukrainian plane are viewed as provocative,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
In Brussels, European Union President Donald Tusk urged Moscow to lean on the separatists to make sure the flare-up in fighting ends and that a cease-fire is restored.
“Russia should use its influence to disengage the Russia-backed separatists,” Tusk said in a statement.
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