Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he suspected Ukraine was preparing a new offensive against pro-Moscow separatists in east Ukraine following an upsurge in fighting.
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Western officials have been quick to talk of their “concern” at the rise in the number of attacks and rocket fire between Ukrainian forces and the Russian-backed separatists in recent days.
Kiev’s pro-Western forces in recent days have been fighting the rebels for control of a strategic highway linking Donetsk with Mariupol – the last major government-held city in the region.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said two government troops were killed and seven others injured in the fighting, which concentrated around the insurgent-stronghold of Donetsk and near the government-controlled port city of Mariupol.
In its latest report, released on Friday, the group’s observers complained of efforts to prevent them reporting on the situation, including electronic jamming of observation drones and denial of access to two separatist-controlled holding areas for heavy weapons withdrawn under the Minsk agreement. It was like that in January of this year.
In an interview published on Sunday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the situation as “explosive”.
In a move Kiev was certain to see as a deliberate insult as it prepared to mark Independence Day on August. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Yalta in Crimea on Monday to promote tourism there, according to the Kremlin’s website.
A cease-fire deal signed in Minsk in February had eased the violence somewhat, but both sides now claim serious violations of the deal.
“They were using heavy weapons”.
The heightened fighting also comes as Kiev accuses Russian Federation of spurring new military activity in eastern Ukraine and along the Ukrainian border.
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Moscow denies involvement in Ukraine’s conflict, despite the death and capture of Russian servicemen in battle and the clear presence in the conflict zone of Russian military equipment, including high-tech missile, radar and communication systems. By Friday morning, Alexander Turchynov, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC), said that Ukraine might be forced to declare martial law and full mobilisation.
