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 With fighting intensifying once more, the foreign ministers of
Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany were due to meet in Berlin later
on Monday to discuss the next steps in implementing a ceasefire
agreement signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February.
"The rebels have not stopped firing at Ukrainian positions ... Over
the past day, the enemy has used weapons banned under the Minsk
agreements," Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said
in a televised briefing.
Under the deal, weapons bigger than 100 mm caliber, including heavy
artillery and powerful rocket systems, are meant to have been
withdrawn from the front line.
Motuzyanyk said rebels had fired at government troops multiple times
with 120-122 mm weapons.
Meanwhile separatist officials accused government troops of firing
tank and artillery rounds repeatedly at rebel positions, the
separatist news agency DAN reported.
It also quoted senior rebel commander Eduard Basurin as saying two
local journalists had been wounded by Ukrainian firing around Pisky,
near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
which is monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire deal, also
reported a sharp spike in hostilities over the weekend.
Speaking ahead of the four-way talks, French Foreign Minister
Laurent Fabius said he and his German counterpart Frank-Walter
Steinmeier were concerned by the ceasefire violations and a lack of
political progress in Ukraine.
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"We are going to remind our colleagues, both Russian and Ukrainian,
that the Minsk process must be respected and must be respected
before the end of the year," he told reporters.
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a
Twitter post Monday evening: "Concerned by reports of resumed heavy
fighting in eastern Ukraine. It's imperative that OSCE monitors have
unfettered access immediately."
Over 6,000 have been killed since the conflict erupted a year ago,
when rebels opposed to the ousting of a Moscow-backed president and
the installation of a pro-Western government declared independence
from Kiev. Ukraine and the West say they have evidence that Russia
has sent men and weapons to support the rebels, a charge Moscow
denies.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Alessandra Prentice; Additional
reporting by Adrian Croft in Barcelona and Doina Chiacu in
Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Eric Walsh)
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