Heavy
shelling hits Ukraine town where rebels reject ceasefire
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[February 16, 2015]
VUHLEHIRSK, Ukraine (Reuters) - A
government-held town in east Ukraine sandwiched between two
rebel-controlled areas came under heavy shelling on Monday, a day after
the start of a ceasefire that Russian-backed separatists say does not
apply there.
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A Kiev military source said four Ukrainian soldiers had been
killed and 21 wounded since the internationally negotiated ceasefire
came into force on Sunday.
A Reuters correspondent at Vuhlehirsk, about 10 km (6 miles) to the
west of Debaltseve, a government-held railway junction town that has
been the focus of most of the fighting in recent weeks, heard heavy
shelling, with blasts around every 10 seconds.
The ceasefire was negotiated at a summit of leaders of Ukraine,
Russia, Germany and France in Belarus last week in an attempt to end
10 months of conflict in eastern Ukraine in which more than 5,000
people have been killed.
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Although fighting generally ceased in the first minutes of Sunday
after the ceasefire came into force, military spokesman Anatoly
Stelmakh told reporters it had continued, or even escalated, around
Debaltseve.
"The illegal armed groups are not supporting the ceasefire," he
said, adding the rebels were using Grad rockets and tanks to attack
government forces holding the town.
"The number of attacks on Debaltseve has even increased in
comparison to previous days and they are using all types of
weapons," Stelmakh said. "The terrorists have been given the order
to take Debaltseve at all cost."
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In all, government positions had been fired on 112 times by rebels
in the past 24 hours, with government forces firing only when they
came under attack, Stelmakh said.
(This story corrects to show Kiev source did not say where the
soldiers were killed and wounded)
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Anton Zverev; Writing by Richard
Balmforth; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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