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Ukraine crisis: Battle rages for Debaltseve despite truce

By BBC
17 February 2015   |   1:47 pm
FIERCE fighting is reported inside the key Ukrainian town of Debaltseve despite a ceasefire deal agreed last week. Rebels say they have taken most of Debaltseve, a transport hub, but the government says it is still in control. International observers tasked with monitoring the ceasefire have been unable to enter the town. Earlier, both sides…

FIERCE fighting is reported inside the key Ukrainian town of Debaltseve despite a ceasefire deal agreed last week.

Rebels say they have taken most of Debaltseve, a transport hub, but the government says it is still in control.

International observers tasked with monitoring the ceasefire have been unable to enter the town.

Earlier, both sides failed to begin withdrawing heavy weapons, despite a Monday deadline agreed in the truce.

The two sides were given until two days after the latest ceasefire came into effect to start the pullout.

A spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic told Russian news agency Interfax that the police station in Debaltseve had been taken as well as the railway station.

He said most of the city was under the control of the separatists and that a mopping-up operation was continuing.

The rebels also said that dozens of Ukrainian troops in Debaltseve had surrendered and others had been killed.

A Ukrainian military spokesman quoted by Reuters news agency confirmed that rebels were attacking the railway station but said the town was still in government hands.

Rebels have offered Ukrainian troops under siege there a safe corridor to leave.

Speaking by phone from inside the town, deputy regional police chief Ilya Kiva said rebels were using small arms, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

“There are wounded and killed but we cannot confirm the numbers yet,” he said.

Although Debaltseve has suffered weeks of artillery exchanges, correspondents say this is the first fierce fighting inside the town.

Most of Debaltseve’s 25,000 population have been evacuated but about 7,000 civilians are still believed trapped by the fighting, according to Amnesty International.

The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday, has been broadly observed but separatists insist the agreement does not apply in Debaltseve because they have the town almost surrounded.

Denis Pushilin, a spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic, described Debaltseve as “internal territory” and said fighting for it was “a moral thing”.

“We do not have the right [to stop fighting],” he told Reuters.

Another rebel leader in the Donetsk region, Andrei Purgin, said separatists planned to discuss the possible withdrawal of weapons later on Tuesday with representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

In the neighbouring Luhansk region, separatist leader Igor Plotnitsky said he had begun pulling back his tanks and artillery in line with the ceasefire agreement. His claim could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday that five soldiers had been killed and 14 wounded in the past 24 hours. A spokesman told AFP news agency that most of the deaths happened near Debaltseve.

Ukraine’s pro-Western government says Russia is supporting the separatists with troops and weapons, but the Kremlin has consistently denied this.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Germany, Ukraine and Russia discussed the crisis in an overnight phone call.

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