Fighting intensifies in Donetsk

Pro-Russian rebels pressed on Friday to seize a key airport in eastern Ukraine despite fierce resistance by government forces. According to the Associated Press, three rebel tanks fired cannons up the main terminal of Donetsk airport, following gains made in the area near the airport in past days.

Kyiv defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko said two Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the clashes, with another nine injured, but that forces at the airport had "firmly stood their ground."

The airport, located just north of Donetsk, gives Kyiv forces a convenient vantage point to target rebel positions.

Truce in danger?

The intensified fighting threatens to disrupt the ceasefire declared in Minsk on September 5, and it has prompted reciprocal jabs between Moscow and the US regarding the "concern" each has for the escalating situation.

"Russia must use its influence with the separatists and end these attacks immediately," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters at a Friday briefing. "Clearly recent events have put a strain on the ceasefire," she added.

That comment immediately followed a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, during which Lavrov "underscored the necessity of a strict observance by the fighting parties of the Minsk Accords," according to a statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Under the Minsk peace plan, the two sides are supposed to move heavy weapons away from the front line and to create a 30-km (19-mile) buffer zone, with monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe acting as monitors.

Civilian deaths

Amid the clashes over the airport, residential areas in Donetsk have been caught in the crossfire. A Red Cross worker died on Thursday when a shell landed near the group's office in Donetsk.

The rebels said the shelling came from the Ukrainian side, while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin blamed the death of the Red Cross worker on "terrorists."

A spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the aid worker's death, along with the shelling of a school that killed three people earlier this week, were proof of "the fragility of the current ceasefire and the importance of ensuring a secure environment in southeastern Ukraine that will allow humanitarian actors to carry out their work and deliver critical assistance to those most in need."

glb/shs (Reuters, AP, AFP)