KIEV, Ukraine —Ukraine’s military fought off waves of separatist assaults on the Donetsk airport Thursday, destabilizing a cease-fire that kept violence and casualties in check for most of last month.
The rebels suffered “many” casualties, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, told reporters in Kiev. Government forces are under continued shelling and lost one serviceman, but the airport remains under the control of Ukrainian forces, he said. There was no independent confirmation of the figures for separatist deaths.
Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko, who helped broker the Sept. 5 truce, told Euronews TV he’s ready to send troops as peacekeepers and rebuild trust “between Russia and the West.” A Swiss citizen working for the International Red Cross was killed in the Donetsk region, Agence France Press reported, without providing any more details immediately.
Rebels “continue to violate the cease-fire,” Lysenko said. Negotiations are under way with the separatists about allowing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to start monitoring the truce, he said.
With elections approaching on Oct. 26, an upsurge in violence since last month contradicts comments by President Petro Poroshenko last week that the worst of the conflict is over. While U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt said on Twitter that Russian forces and military equipment are still in the country and the border remains unsecured, Vladimir Putin’s government denies any involvement.
The two sides have agreed to establish a buffer zone between government forces and the rebels and exchange prisoners.
“The cease-fire in Ukraine offers an opportunity, but Russia maintains its ability to destabilize Ukraine and Russia remains in breach of international law,” NATO’s new secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday, his first day as head of the military alliance.
The conflict has killed more than 3,500 people and driven at least 615,000 from their homes, the United Nations said.
Putin justified annexing Crimea from Ukraine in March by saying Russia needed to protect Russian speakers on the Black Sea peninsula. Deputy Premier Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday the same reasoning would prompt his country to defend its citizens in the breakaway Transnistria region of Moldova, the Interfax news service reported.
REU leaders have refused to ease sanctions, deepening Russia’s economic woes, with the government in Moscow asking the central bank to consider providing foreign-currency swaps to banks. Sanctioned companies including state-run oil producer Rosneft and gas producer Novatek have asked for aid.
Russia, which says it wants to normalize ties with the U.S. and the EU, also drew ire from the latter after its government adopted a decree proposing new trade barriers with Ukraine. The decree violates a deal under which the bloc delayed deepening trade ties with Ukraine until 2016, European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a letter to Putin.
“We consider that the application of this decree would contravene the agreed joint conclusions and the decision to delay the provisional application of the trade related part of the Association Agreement,” Barroso said in the letter, referring to the EU’s pact to draw closer to Ukraine, a process that Putin opposes.
Russia risks an escalation of EU sanctions if separatists make further military gains in eastern Ukraine, a person familiar with German government policy told Bloomberg Wednesday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said his country won’t change its position over Ukraine to win a repeal of sanctions.
