Fighting intensifies ahead Ukrainian peace parley

INTENSE fighting in Ukraine, including a rocket strike on Kiev’s military headquarters in the east, killed at least 20 people on Tuesday on the eve of a four-way peace summit.

Pro-Russia rebels sought to encircle railway hub Debaltseve, and Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive around the strategic port of Mariupol as diplomats scrambled to finalise a deal to end the 10-month war at the summit in Minsk planned for Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said rockets from a Tornado multiple launch system for the first time hit the military’s command centre in Kramatorsk, a regional capital behind the frontlines considered to be under firm government control and far from rebel positions.

Local officials said the strike killed at least six people and wounded 21 in nearby residential areas.

Foreign ministry official Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the rockets were Tornado, “Russia’s newest Multiple Launch Rocket System. Ukraine simply doesn’t have it.”

Kiev and the West accuse Moscow of supplying and training the heavily armed separatists, but Russia denies the claims.

Rebels say their weapons have been captured from Ukrainian forces, although Kiev has cited numerous cases of the insurgents using advanced weapons that are only available from Russian arsenals.

Another seven Ukrainian soldiers and seven civilians were killed in fighting over the last 24 hours, Kiev officials and rebels said, including in Debaltseve which the insurgents claim to have surrounded.