Fresh fighting in eastern Ukraine
October 7, 2014
Authorities in Ukraine reported heavy fighting around Donetsk's contested airport, still under government control, and in the other major rebel-held city of Luhansk. The government in Kyiv and the pro-Russian separatists blamed each other for the violations of a shaky ceasefire signed just over one month ago.
Ukraine's military said that five soldiers were killed at Donetsk airport, also reporting four civilian deaths within Donetsk, three in Luhansk, and a repelled rebel attack on army positions near Mariupol. The government-held industrial port on the Sea of Azov was the target of a surprise rebel counter-offensive last month.
Russia's foreign ministry accused Ukraine of shelling Donetsk, also saying that plans for an investigation into the death of a Red Cross worker in the city did not go far enough.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday that Merkel had discussed the conflict by telephone with Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, who reported "ongoing separatist attacks especially on the airport in Donetsk."
Winter warmers in aid convoy
Poroshenko has also thanked Merkel for a German convoy of humanitarian aid that crossed the border from Poland into Ukraine on Tuesday, Seibert said. The government spokesman shared the story about the convoy of 112 trucks carrying goods worth around 10 million euros ($12.6 million) on Twitter.
The convoy was carrying equipment with the coming winter in mind, such as heating units, power generators, blankets, camp beds, portable housing kits and warm clothing. The German trucks were scheduled to stop and unload in the capital Kyiv, before Ukrainian vehicles would transport the equipment to the government-controlled cities of Kharkiv, Slavyansk, Mariupol, Zaporozhye and Dnipropetrovsk.
Sixty soldiers and 32 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the September 5 ceasefire was signed, according to figures from the foreign ministry in Kyiv.
In the capital, Ukraine's interim government put forward its new anti-corruption laws on Tuesday, seeking to push them through ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26.
msh/bw (AFP, dpa, Reuters)