Violence flares up in Donetsk – four killed in shelling of school

A school has been shelled in Donetsk – tis has resulted in four deaths. None of the dead are children but are a teacher and a couple of parents bbc.com. The tragic incident of shelling of the playground has been reported from the rebel-held east Ukrainian city of Donetsk and it happened on the first day of classes.
The school number 57 in the Kievsky district had over 200 people when the playground was shelled – it included 70 children. The students had only now returned to school after the start of the school year was postponed by a month because of the fighting.
Elsewhere, another six people died when a minibus was hit, also in Donetsk.
The school is located 4-Km from Donetsk airport, where rebels have clashed with Ukrainian troops.
Both the sides have blamed the other for the attacks. While the Kiev-controlled regional administration said rebels from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) had opened fire with a multiple-launch rocket system, the DPR deputy leader Andrei Purgin has clarified that Ukrainian rocket launchers had targeted residential areas from as far as 40-Km away.
Incidentally, a fragile ceasefire has been in place in eastern Ukraine since 5 September but the truce has frequently been violated.

Fresh violence leaves 12 dead and 32 injured in Ukraine

The calm and relative peace in eastern Ukraine has been subjected to the worst violence in more than a week with fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government troops in the region – the clashes led to the death of at least 12 people and injuries to another 32.
As indicated by Colonel Andriy Lysenko in a briefing to journalists in Kiev, at least nine troops were killed and 27 had been wounded during clashes in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Luhansk yesterday.
In addition, the city council of Donetsk has gone online to indicate that at least three civilians were killed and five wounded in overnight shelling of a residential area in the northern part of the city. Here, the fighting had centered on the government-held airport.
Incidentally, in spite of assurances by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that his peace plan is working, violence has continued to rear its head despite a cease-fire declared on September. 5. Nearly 3500 people have died ever since fighting began in April.

Ukraine rebels want a separate state and name it Novorossiya

In keeping with the measures outlined in the 5 September ceasefire agreement signed by President Petro Poroshenko, the rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine have been granted self-rule and fighters have been given an amnesty bbc.com.
This is as per a new law adopted by parliament.
This amnesty would affect rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but will not cover the shooting down of the MH17 plane. In view of this amnesty, the pro-Russian separatists who have been taken prisoner in the fighting should now be released. Simultaneously, the rebels who are holding government buildings in the east should now vacate them, hand over prisoners and surrender their weapons.
However, a section of the rebels are demanding full independence, and want to create a new state called "Novorossiya" – it is similar to what Russian President Vladimir Putin had talked about in his speeches. Incidentally, heavy shelling around the government-held airport of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine have been reported in spite of the fragile ceasefire.
Pro-Russian rebels have been engaged in heavy fighting with government forces in Donetsk and Luhansk since April - a month after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula – and, till date, nearly 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict and over 310,000 have been internally displaced in Ukraine as per UN statistics.
While Ukraine and the West continue to accuse Russia of providing the rebels with regular soldiers and heavy weapons, Russia continues any direct involvement.
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UN report reveals that over 3000 killed in Ukraine violence

Ivan Simonovic, the UN assistant secretary general for human rights, has revealed that the number of people confirmed killed in fighting since the conflict began in Ukraine in April was now 2,729 – however, the figure would cross 3000 if the 298 passengers and crew on the Malaysia Airlines flight were included theguardian.com.
However, the actual figures could be much higher.
The figures are based on data from available resources – this was disclosed at an extraordinary meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE has about 250 monitors in Ukraine.
The reason for inclusion of the MH17 crash was because it was apparently struck by a missile while the aircraft was flying over eastern Ukraine on 17 July. Washington and Kiev accused Russia-backed rebels of shooting down the jetliner with an advanced Russian missile system in the mistaken belief it was a Ukrainian military plane but that was denied by Russia as well as the rebels.
A ceasefire is active right now in Ukraine but the Ukrainian military's press center has listed five rebel violations of the ceasefire accord overnight,, the rebels have retaliated by accusing the government forces of preparing to storm a town near rebel-held Donetsk which is the region's industrial hub.
Both the sides insist they are strictly observing the ceasefire and continue to blame their opponents for any violations.
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Russia’s double game – artillery attack on Mariupol even as ceasefire is on

The latest round of ceasefire in Ukraine appears to be in jeopardy because, just over a day after it was declared, shelling has been reported near the southeastern port city of Mariupol foxnews.com. This port has been the focus of an offensive by pro-Russian separatists in recent days and has reversed the gains of Ukrainian government forces. These forces had encircled the major rebel-held strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Witnesses have informed about hearing explosions in the eastern part of the city and also of a truck, a gas station, and an industrial facility on fire within the city limits. Moreover, witnesses have seen trucks carrying pro-Kiev militia volunteers, as well as tanks and armored personnel carriers racing in the direction of the eastern part of the city.
A Ukrainian officer has admitted that there has been an artillery attack but there was no details about casualties. The Interior Minister of Ukraine, Arsen Avakov, had accused Russia of violating the cease-fire – as per him, rockets had been fired at Ukrainian positions 16 times from Russian territory.
The ceasefire deal had been signed in the Belarusian capital of Minsk by Ukraine, Russia and the Kremlin-backed separatists. This was an effort to bring to an end more than four months of fighting in the region. The negotiators have, apparently, agreed on the withdrawal of all heavy weaponry, the release of all prisoners and the delivery of humanitarian aid to devastated cities in eastern Ukraine.
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Pro-Russian activists force Ukraine troops to abandon Luhansk airport

The Ukrainian military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, has confirmed that Kiev's forces had abandoned the airport in Luhansk after it came under attack by a Russian tank battalion. Reports have also come in of fighting at Donetsk airport theguardian.com . The Ukrainian army and volunteer battalions have met with heavy casualties as they tried to retreat from encirclement in the town of Ilovaisk.
Fighting continued in eastern Ukraine even as a new round of talks were due to start in Minsk, Belarus – these talks are aimed at ending the crisis. This would be the first time that the talks would include representatives of the pro-Russian separatist movement.
It is felt that Kiev would not agree to give into demands from the rebel leaders, but the change of the tone indicates that, having boosted the rebels militarily, Moscow could be looking for a compromise solution that will still give it sway over swaths of Ukraine.
Incidentally, the unrest in Ukraine is taking a toll on schooling - in the rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, most of the schools did not open due to the chaotic situation, with regular shelling and shortages of water and electricity having created a humanitarian crisis in recent weeks.
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10 Russian soldiers caught in Donetsk - Russia says: they must have crossed the border by mistake

Russia is continuing to insist that it has not sent any military into Ukraine but the fact remains that ten Russian soldiers were found in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine and have been detained edition.cnn.com. The country's Security Service has confirmed this even as tensions simmered over the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels.
These 10 Russian soldiers were captured with documents and weapons on them and this automatically shows that Russia is not making correct statements – it has repeatedly denied claims by Kiev that it has sent troops and weapons over the border into Ukraine, where the Ukrainian military is fighting pro-Russian rebels.
The explanation offered by Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency quoting a source in the Russian Defense Ministry is that the soldiers had been patrolling the border and must have crossed the border by accident at an unmarked point.
This latest development comes as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, meet for the first time since June in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, for trade talks related to the Eurasian Customs Union. This is a trade bloc made up of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Senior European Union officials, headed by EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton, are also present in Minsk for the summit.
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Violence in Ukraine has left 2119 dead (including 20 children) since April 2014

The figures of casualties in east Ukraine and released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as on 15 August 2014 and reported in bbc.com are frightening. At least 2,119 have died since mid-April, including at least 20 children, 5,043 people have been wounded in east Ukraine as of 13 August, on an average there are 60 casualties per day. So far, 55,800 people have been internally displaced and 188,000 have fled to Russia. Out of them, 22,000 have fled Donetsk and Luhansk in a five-day period last week. Ukrainian military officials have revealed that at least 17 civilians were killed when a convoy of refugees came under mortar and rocket fire south-east of Luhansk. It may be noted that the trouble erupted in east Ukraine when Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian activists took over important cities in east Ukraine like Donetsk, Luhsansk etcetera. Heavy fighting has been reported from the rebel-held areas of eastern Ukraine, with street clashes in the center of the key city of Luhansk. There have also been shelling near the rebel headquarters in Donetsk. An aide to Ukraine's interior ministry, Anton Gerashenko, has informed that 14 Russian TV channels had been banned from cable networks in Ukraine because these channels, like Russia Today and Life News had been broadcasting propaganda of war and violence. It is understood that Russian President Vladimir Putin would be meeting Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko next week in view of the increase in the number of civilian casualties. The pro-Russian separatists in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk had declared independence from Kiev and proclaimed their own people's republics after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March.