But Monday’s deaths were reported in strikes across the war zone.
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The leaders of France, Germany and Ukraine are to meet in Berlin on Monday in a bid to bring an end to a new wave of violence in Ukraine, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said. Violence has increased significantly in the past few days, with the Ukrainian government forces and separatists trading shellfire.
Poroshenko called Putin’s visit to Crimea “a continuation of the plan to escalate the situation” as Ukraine prepares to mark its Independence Day on August. 24.
“We are anxious by the development of events in recent days that are very strongly suggestive of a preparation for further military actions,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
Putin’s visit to Crimea sparked ire from Kiev with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko describing it as a “challenge to the civilized world”.
Ukrainian troops have recently been engaged in fighting with pro-Russians over the control of a strategic highway linking the Kiev-held southeastern port of Mariupol with Donetsk, which is controlled by pro-Russians. “It was like that in January of this year”. “A lot is at stake”, Steinmeier said.
The single day death toll is the highest in over a month as government troops and pro-Moscow rebels accuse each other of gearing up for a renewed onslaught that would finish off an already tattered February truce.
The separatist website, DAN, said at least three people had been killed and four wounded as a result of government shelling of Gorlivka, a regular frontline hot spot northeast of the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk. “Any attempt by the Russian-backed separatists to take over more of Ukraine’s territory would be unacceptable to the worldwide community”.
On Sunday the National Security and Defence Council that advises the Ukrainian president on defence and security told the Independent that by their estimates, Russian Federation had deployed 50,000 soldiers on the Ukrainian border. But Russian Federation supports the separatist cause and has said it is using its influence over the rebels to push for peace in the region. “The enemy was not shelling Ukrainian positions, but a civilian town”, said Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.
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Moscow has repeatedly denied any military involvement in the Ukraine conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,800 people since violence broke out in April 2014.
