Ukraine: Kiev resumed its offensive, but dilomatiques efforts will continue Kiev resumed Tuesday its military operation against rebels in the east, but diplomatic efforts will nevertheless continue Wednesday with a meeting in Berlin heads of German diplomacy, French, Russian and Ukrainian. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Laurent Fabius, and Pavlo Klimkin Lavrov will meet in the afternoon in the German capital for talks on the crisis, told Paris a French diplomatic source. A possible cease-fire, the resumption of negotiations between Kiev and insurgents and the role of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) will be the focus of discussions, the source said. On the ground, government forces recaptured the border post Dovjanskiï occupied by the pro-Russian insurgents in the Luhansk region (east), assured the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. According to a statement from the presidency, he is the first victory in the anti-terrorist operation that Mr. Poroshenko announced the resumption in the night of Monday to Tuesday - Ukrainian forces will to attack has he proclaimed - refusing to extend the cease-fire, despite intense European and Russian pressure. However, a spokesman for the Peoples Republic of Lugansk proclaimed by the separatists, denied that the station Dovjanskiï fell into the hands of the forces of Kiev, while grateful, according to Russian news agency Ria Novosti that fierce fighting took place in its surroundings. The border control is one of the objectives of Kiev who wants to prevent the entry of men into rebel areas and materials from Russia. Ukrainian authorities, who spoke of a massive offensive artillery and aviation, announced the hours the recovery of several villages to the rebels, but no independent confirmation of this success has been achieved, while conflict also takes place in the field of information. For Putin, it is Poroshenko bear completely responsible for the current situation, not only from a military point of view, but also political. The Russian president also said now expect to have relations on an equal footing between his country and the West, after defending Moscows geopolitical interests in the Ukrainian crisis. If Russia had not done, NATO would be installed today in Sevastopol, port Crimea where the Russian fleet based historically, has he repeated. According to witnesses quoted by local Donetsk and taken over by the Ukrainian newspaper online Pravda.ua websites, violent fighting took place on Tuesday 30 km southwest of Donetsk, the village of Mariinka. Elsewhere on the field, however, the situation appeared relatively unchanged from the last days of the cease-fire, marked by numerous skirmishes. In a leafy street Kramatorsk, some 80 km north of Donetsk, journalists from AFP saw people scrutinize dug by mortar craters, they said, had killed five people. People just went to the market when the shooting started, said Valentina Balabaï, while her husband nailed boards over broken windows of their home. There were two dead bodies here, two there and a fifth on the other side of the road. In Donetsk, an AFP correspondent found in the late morning firefights provided around the regional police headquarters. Residents said that the shooting was triggered by groups of well-armed rebels seeking, perhaps, to free comrades detained by the police. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, seven police officers were injured. The Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, wants to open Wednesday or Thursday a humanitarian corridor to allow the evacuation of civilians from combat zones. This corridor has he told reporters during a visit in the east should go Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region in Barvenkovo in nearby Kharkiv region.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 22:51:38 +0000