Ukraine rebels claim to control Donetsk airport

Jan. 15, 2015: Smoke rises over the new terminal of Donetsk airport. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

DONETSK, Ukraine –  Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine claimed Monday that they have seized control of the Donetsk airport after days of intense fighting. Ukrainian officials have not confirmed a retreat.

“All attempts of the Ukrainian army to take the airport and to get revenge for the defeat of the last year… have failed,” rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said at a press conference early Monday in Donetsk.

He accused Ukraine of using rocket and artillery fire with an intensity that rebel forces had “never experienced before.”

The city of Donetsk, the separatist stronghold, was shaken by heavy outgoing and incoming artillery fire over the weekend as a battle raged for the air terminal and surrounding areas. Sporadic explosions could still be heard from the direction of the airport early Monday.

Reduced to rubble, the airport is of limited strategic importance in the short term, but has great symbolic value. In the longer term, the government fears that the separatists could use the airport to expand their control over eastern Ukraine and create an air supply route with Russia.

Ukrainian officials did not confirm a retreat. Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko would say only that the situation remained tense.

Yuriy Biryukov, an adviser to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, wrote on his official Facebook account early Monday that wounded soldiers had been evacuated from the air terminal overnight, but did not say how many troops had remained.

“We will not abandon our own, nobody has forgotten them,” he wrote. “Everything will be (ours), but just not right away. We are learning.”

Three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and 66 wounded in the previous 24 hours, Lysenko said. He would not say how many of those casualties occurred at the airport.

The U.N. estimates that more than 4,700 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since April.

The separatists increased the stakes last week by successfully taking over large sections of the airport, where Ukrainian troops had remained despite coming under rocket attacks for months on end. The Ukrainians then unleashed a counter-offensive, supported by a hasty reinforcement of troops and heavy armor.

Lysenko said that according to a cease-fire agreement reached in September, the airport was to be left under Ukrainian control. Russia and the separatists dispute this.

Russia and Ukraine both expressed willingness on Monday to work toward implementation of the cease-fire agreement, including a provision to pull back heavy weapons. But each side put the onus on the other for the lack of progress.

The resumption of fighting and the inability of the warring sides to find common ground scuttled plans for the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany to meet last week.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday they would discuss how preparations for such a summit were developing. “But in any case we must decide this week whether we are on the path toward preparing for a summit or not,” he said.

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Ukraine rebels claim to control Donetsk airport

Ukraine faces cluster bomb claim

21 October 2014 Last updated at 18:01 A cluster bomblet found in Donetsk in August A leading human rights group says it has strong evidence Ukraine attacked populated areas of Donetsk with cluster bombs, banned by many other states.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses the army of using the deadly weapon, which scatters bomblets, to shell the rebel-held city earlier this month.

Ukrainian forces denied using “banned weapons” or shelling civilian areas.

Violence has continued in eastern Ukraine despite a ceasefire which came into place on 5 September.

At least 3,700 people have been killed in the conflict which broke out in April between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko agreed in a telephone conversation on Tuesday with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin that the ceasefire agreed on 5 September should be fully observed, Mr Poroshenko’s office said.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has asked the EU for an extra loan of €2bn (£1.6bn; $2.5bn).

A source at the European Commission in Brussels told BBC News the money was not linked to Ukraine’s ongoing gas debt talks with Russia, which are being brokered by the EU.

Russia is accused of using gas as a political tool against Ukraine.

In a separate development, a senior Polish official has alleged that Mr Putin suggested partitioning Ukraine with Poland six years ago in a conversation with Donald Tusk, who was Poland’s prime minister at the time.

‘Shocking to see’

In its report, the New-York based rights group said use of cluster munitions in Donetsk this month was “widespread”.

International Red Cross worker Laurent DuPasquier was killed in a rocket attack on 2 October Vladimir Shramko, 48, stands next to a cafe destroyed by shelling in Spartak, on the outskirts of Donetsk Women in a bomb shelter near Donetsk airport

“While it was not possible to conclusively determine responsibility for many of the attacks, the evidence points to Ukrainian government forces’ responsibility for several cluster munition attacks on Donetsk,” it found.

“It is shocking to see a weapon that most countries have banned used so extensively in eastern Ukraine,” said Mark Hiznay, senior arms researcher at HRW.

Ukraine did not sign up to the 2008 global treaty banning cluster bombs.

Responding to the report, Ukrainian “anti-terrorist operation” spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov described the accusations as “utter nonsense”.

“We do not use banned weapons,” he told AFP news agency by telephone. “Neither do we shell civilian neighbourhoods because this endangers lives.”

The Convention on Cluster Munitions has been ratified by 86 states while a further 28 have signed it. Russia and the US are among those that have not signed it.

‘Just a coincidence’

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger has opened a new round of gas talks in Brussels between Ukraine and Russia, amid concerns the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine could affect supplies to EU states.

Campaigning for Ukraine’s parliamentary election on Sunday continued on Tuesday. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (holding gun) visited an arms factory in Dnipropetrovsk Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk inspected a peacekeeping training centre near Lviv

A spokesman for the European Commission, Simon O’Connor, confirmed Ukraine had asked for an additional €2bn on top of the €15bn the EU offered in March.

“This will now be evaluated in consultation with the IMF and Ukrainian authorities, and a proposal will be made to the European Parliament and the EU Council,” Mr O’Connor said.

A source at the Commission told the BBC that the request was “not related to today’s trilateral gas talks”, which were “just a coincidence”.

Asked what reason Ukraine had given, the source said it was to “cover their most urgent financial needs”.

Russia is demanding €4.2bn in unpaid debts, to be repaid in instalments.

‘Split Poland’

Poland’s parliamentary speaker, Radoslaw Sikorski, alleged Mr Putin had suggested dividing up Ukraine, in talks in 2008 with Donald Tusk, who will shortly take over as president of the European Council.

“He wanted us to become participants in this partition of Ukraine…” Mr Sikorski told US website Politico. “He [Putin] went on to say Ukraine is an artificial country and that Lwow [Lviv] is a Polish city and why don’t we just sort it out together.”

“We made it very, very clear to them – we wanted nothing to do with this,” Mr Sikorski added.

Speaking later, Mr Sikorski said his words to Politico had been “over-interpreted”, without elaborating.

Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz, who is in the same party as Mr Sikorski, criticised him for evading reporters’ questions on the issue.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the reported conversation as a “fairy tale”.

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Ukraine faces cluster bomb claim

Passenger on downed Malaysia Airlines jet in Ukraine had oxygen mask on - VIDEO: Plane victim found wearing mask

THE HAGUE, Netherlands –  The body of one passenger of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was found wearing an oxygen mask, Dutch prosecutors said Thursday, raising questions about how much those on board knew about their fate when the plane plunged out of the sky above Eastern Ukraine in July.

The passenger, an Australian, did not have the mask on his face, but its elastic strap was around his neck, said Wim de Bruin, a spokesman for the Dutch National Prosecutor’s Office which is carrying out a criminal investigation into the air disaster.

De Bruin said Dutch forensic experts investigated the mask “for fingerprints, saliva and DNA and that did not produce any results. So it is not known how or when that mask got around the neck of the victim.”

De Bruin said no other bodies recovered from the wreckage were found wearing masks. He said he did not know where in the plane the Australian victim was sitting.

All 298 passengers and crew died when the jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed July 17. Dutch air crash investigators said last month it was likely struck by multiple “high-energy objects from outside the aircraft,” which some aviation experts say is consistent with a strike by a missile.

The head of the criminal investigation said the most likely of possible scenarios being investigated is that the Boeing 777 was shot down from the ground.

Relatives of the Australian passenger were told about the mask as soon as it was discovered, but relatives of other victims heard about it for the first time when Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans mentioned it during an interview on a late-night talk show on Wednesday.

Relatives of victims began calling investigators Thursday asking about the comments, De Bruin said.

The Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Timmermans regrets his comments.

“I have an enormous amount of sympathy for the next-of-kin,” he said. “The last thing I want to do is compound their suffering in this way.”

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Passenger on downed Malaysia Airlines jet in Ukraine had oxygen mask on - VIDEO: Plane victim found wearing mask

At least 12 dead in eastern Ukraine despite cease-fire

Activists dismantle Ukraine’s biggest monument to Lenin at a pro-Ukrainian rally in the central square of the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Igor Chekachkov) (The Associated Press)

Activists dismantle Ukraine’s biggest bronze monument to Lenin at a pro-Ukrainian rally in a central square of the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Igor Chekachkov) (The Associated Press) An activist dismantles Ukraine’s biggest monument to Lenin at a pro-Ukrainian rally in the central square of the eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept.28, 2014. (AP Photo/Sergey Kozlov) (The Associated Press)

KIEV, Ukraine –  Eastern Ukraine has suffered the worst violence in more than a week as fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops in the region killed at least 12 people and wounded 32, officials said Monday.

Col. Andriy Lysenko told journalists in a briefing in Kiev on Monday that at least nine troops had been killed in a day and 27 had been wounded.

Meanwhile, the city council of Donetsk said in a statement published online that at least three civilians were killed and five wounded in overnight shelling of a residential area in the northern part of the city, where fighting has centered on the government-held airport.

Violence has continued despite a cease-fire declared on Sept. 5. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been at pains to insist to a skeptical audience at home that his peace plan is working.

Since fighting began in April, the conflict has claimed at least 3,500 lives. On Sept. 20, representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the rebels signed another agreement that would require both sides to remove all heavy artillery from the frontline, creating a buffer zone that would allow the cease-fire to be better enforced.

On Sunday, in the second-largest Ukrainian city, Kharkiv, nationalists tore down an enormous statue of Vladimir Lenin to cheers from the crowd. Across Ukraine, people have torn down statues to the former Communist leader in a symbolic display of anti-Russian sentiment.

The authorities in Kharkiv supported the move. Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs and a Kharkiv native, wrote on his Facebook page: “Lenin? Let him fall… As long as nobody gets hurt.”

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At least 12 dead in eastern Ukraine despite cease-fire

Clash "kills seven Ukraine troops"

29 September 2014 Last updated at 17:57 Ukrainian troops have been battling pro-Russian rebels across the east of the country Seven Ukrainian soldiers are said to have died in a clash with pro-Russian rebels near Donetsk airport – in what would be the deadliest single incident for the military since a truce deal.

A tank shell hit the vehicle carrying the troops, an official said.

Three civilians were reportedly killed in other incidents.

Ukrainian activists earlier toppled a statue of Lenin in the eastern city of Kharkiv – a move likely to be seen as a provocation by pro-Russians.

Nationalist protesters had gathered around the statue on Sunday night for a “Kharkiv is Ukraine” rally. The governor of Kharkiv region, Ihor Baluta, then signed an order to dismantle the statue.

The mayor of Kharkiv, Gennady Kernes, said on a local government website that the monument would be restored, calling its destruction unlawful.

Pro-Russian demonstrators defended the statue in February, as similar monuments were being taken down in other parts of the country in a wave of protests that accompanied the removal of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Kharkiv has largely escaped the violence which subsequently swept through east Ukraine’s other regions, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Ukrainian flags flutter where Kharkiv’s statue of Lenin stood – until Sunday night

The latest deaths cast fresh doubt on a ceasefire agreed between the Ukrainian government and the rebels on 5 September.

The seven soldiers were killed in a vehicle near Donetsk airport, which the rebels have been trying to capture from the Ukrainian military.

“During the evening attack, the Ukrainian armoured transporter, with its crew and a paratroop unit, took a direct hit from a tank,” Ukrainian military spokesman Col Andriy Lysenko told reporters.

“Intensive fighting broke out. Our paratroopers sustained losses,” Col Lysenko said.

He said a total of nine soldiers had been killed and 27 wounded in the past 24 hours.

Separately, authorities in Donetsk told AFP news agency that three civilians had been killed over the same period. The city is a base for the pro-Russian rebels.

The OSCE security organisation, which is monitoring the ceasefire, confirmed there had been heavy shelling around Donetsk airport.

There was also heavy shelling of the eastern outskirts of Mariupol on Friday and Saturday, OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw told the BBC.

Just before the ceasefire took effect heavily armed rebels moved close to Mariupol, a strategic port city on the main route to Crimea.

Russia denies Western allegations that it has armed the rebels and sent troops into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. About 3,200 people have died in fighting since April.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March – a move condemned by Ukraine and the West.

The European Union and the US later imposed sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine conflict.

Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the “most dangerous” part of the crisis in the east had passed, predicting that his peace deal with the pro-Russian rebels would hold.

‘Suspicious graves’

For several days Russian state television has reported on “mass graves” allegedly unearthed by rebels near Nizhnya Krynka, a village near Donetsk. At least four bodies have been found there, according to the Russian reports.

The television reports said Ukrainian army and national guard units had occupied the area and were suspected of shooting captives at close range.

Last week Anton Herashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, dismissed the mass grave allegation as “outright lies”.

OSCE spokesman Bociurkiw confirmed that “about half a dozen” bodies, some of them decomposed, had been seen by OSCE monitors at the site.

“We observed unmarked graves, it was not possible to establish gender, and there were shell casings nearby,” he said.

“We were not able to do a proper investigation because the OSCE doesn’t have the ability to do a forensic assessment,” he told the BBC.

“We had no way of establishing if they were shot or who put the weapons there.”

He also said the OSCE had been unable to check whether Russia was bringing more military equipment into Ukraine or taking it out. No inspection was carried out on Russian humanitarian aid lorries that entered the conflict zone, he said.

“We don’t have an inventory of what existed, so it’s very difficult to establish what if anything has moved. Equipment was also unmarked,” he said.

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Clash "kills seven Ukraine troops"

World Youth team for one-week camp in Ukraine

BY PAUL A REID

Observer WriterMONTEGO BAY, St James — Head coach of the Jamaican team to the 8th IAAF World Youth Championships to be held in Donetsk, Ukraine July 10-14 is expecting the team to perform up to expectations after their outstanding performances at the recent JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Junior Championships.The 26-member team was announced by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Wednesday morning and includes three female throwers for the first time ever.Sprinter Michael O’Hara, who will be seeking Jamaica’s first-ever male sprint double at the global age group level, and sprinter hurdler Yanique Thompson, had returned World Youth Leading times at the Trials held two weeks ago.Devaughn Baker is also the 400m World Youth leader with 46.64 seconds.O’Hara had won the 100m in a personal best 10.39 seconds and the 200m in a joint leading 20.75 seconds, while Thompson had improved her World Leading time in the 100m hurdles to 13.23 seconds.O’Hara’s 100m time has since been surpassed by Denmark’s Kristopher Hari’s 10.37 seconds run last weekend.The team is scheduled to leave the island on Monday for Ukraine where they will take part in a one-week camp organised by the IAAF and this Carr said would benefit the team.“This will help in a big way as the athletes will get acclimatised and will get a chance to sharpen up for the competition,” he said.Jamaica won nine medals in the most recent staging, in Lille, France last year, which included four gold medals, a silver and four bronze after just two medals in 2009 in Bressanone, Italy.In addition to O’Hara, Baker and Thompson, Jamaica will have several other highly ranked athletes in the team including Christoff Bryan second in high jump; Yanique McNeil second and Tiffany James number four in girls 400m; Rushelle Burton fourth in 100m hurdles and Jaheel Hyde and Martin Manley at 5th and 6th respectively in the 400m.Team:Girls –Isheka Binns, Rushelle Burton, Saqukine Cameron, Rochelle Frazer, Paul-Ann Gayle, Daeshon Gordon, Tifanny James, Andrenette Knight, Yanique McNeil, Tamara Moncrieffe, Shanice Reid, Jonielle Smith and Yanique Thompson.Boys — Devaughn Baker, Odane Bernard, Clayton Brown, Christoff Bryan, Jordan Chin, Demar Gayle, Jaheel Hyde, Martin Manley, Michael OHara, O’Brian Waysome, Marvin Williams, Okeem Williams and Waseem Williams.Officials — Team manager, Ewan Scott; assistant manager, Nerine Pommells; assistant manager, Hamlin Pagon; head coach, Michael Carr; coaches — Keilando Goburn, Shanikie Osburn, Marlon Gayle, Ruel James; doctor, Tahira Redwood; physio, and Andrea Saunders.

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World Youth team for one-week camp in Ukraine