Ukraine Says Up to 200 Rebels Killed in Donetsk Fighting

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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Kateryna Choursina, Daryna Krasnolutska – November 7, 2014) Ukraine’s military said its forces killed as many as 200 rebels in fighting in Donetsk as dozens of tanks and other military vehicles crossed the border into Ukraine from Russia.

“Insurgents who were shelling Ukrainian troop positions at Donetsk Airport yesterday were killed by government troop artillery strikes,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said on Facebook. “Four separatist tanks, two armored personnel carriers, two howitzers, and an infantry combat vehicle were destroyed, and up to 200 insurgents were killed.”

The death toll, which couldn’t be independently confirmed, is the biggest reported number of troops or fighters killed during repeated breaches of a Sept. 5 truce. Earlier, the Ukrainian government said it had suffered more than 100 killed and about 600 wounded since the cease-fire came into force.

As tensions between the former Soviet republics threatened to escalate into open war, Ukraine’s army is preparing “for an adequate reaction,” military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev today. He said pro-Russian rebel shelling of government troops with surface-to-surface grad missiles, mortars and artillery had killed five soldiers and wounded 16 in the last 24 hours.

Standoff in Ukraine

The military standoff is coming to a head after Ukraine and its allies accused separatists of undermining peace efforts and violating the truce agreed in Minsk, Belarus by holding Nov. 2 elections in Donetsk and Luhansk that the U.S. and European Union have condemned as illegitimate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Nov. 5 that Ukraine’s “civil war” isn’t subsiding as cities continue to come under shelling and the civilian death toll rises. Putin denies that Russian forces are involved in the conflict.

“Russia continues to supply manpower and military vehicles to Ukraine’s Donbas,” Lysenko said, referring to eastern Ukraine. “Yesterday, 32 tanks, 16 howitzers, and 30 trucks with ammunition and manpower crossed the border from Russia” into Luhansk. Andrei Bobrun, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, wouldn’t immediately comment when reached by phone in Moscow.

The ruble fell 0.3 percent to 46.9484 per dollar at 6:20 p.m. in Moscow, after falling 4.1 percent yesterday. The Micex Index (INDEXCF) of stocks rose 0.2 percent.

Russia’s RIA Novosti state news service quoted Andrei Purgin, deputy premier of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, as saying that Ukraine had begun a large-scale offensive against the separatists in the east. Purgin said he sees “all-out war” and said Ukrainian forces had broken the Sept. 5 truce, according to RIA.

Russian Enemies

Igor Girkin, a Russian who fought for the rebels as defense minister for the Donetsk People’s Republic under the nom de guerre Igor Strelkov before returning home earlier this year, called on Putin to “take actions to stop this murderous war,” according to an interview with LifeNews today.

“The people who came to power in Kiev are the enemies of Russia,” he said. The Russian population in Ukraine “needs to be defended.”

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a telephone call today that “a significant deviation from the Minsk protocol is leading to further escalation in the conflict,” according to a statement on the website of Poroshenko’s office today. Both repeated a call for a total cease-fire, Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a separate statement.

Merkel expressed “serious concern about recent reports on renewed Russian troop movements into Ukrainian territory,” Seibert said.

Putin discussed the deteriorating security situation in eastern Ukraine with Russia’s security council, Interfax news service said yesterday.

NATO Tension

In August, according to NATO and Ukraine, Russian forces helped rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions wage a counteroffensive to break out after they were encircled by Ukraine’s army.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries have also said Russia is probing their borders. NATO fighter jets intercepted a Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the latest in a series of similar incidents that have grown in frequency. Latvia said today it spotted two Russian naval vessels near its territorial waters, a day after it said F-16s based in the Baltic region intercepted a Russian IL-20 surveillance plane, according to its Twitter account.

NATO says its jets have intercepted Russian aircraft 100 times this year, three times last year’s total.

Ukraine’s military said Russia’s air force had put some of its units on high alert. A spokesman for Russia’s armed forces said by phone that he wasn’t able to comment.

Article ©2014 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved. Article also appeared at bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-07/ukraine-lurches-back-toward-open-war-on-east-fighting.html

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