Fighting flared in Ukraines easternmost regions hours after the conclusion of a natural gas deal with Russia, highlighting the challenges in reaching peace as the Red Cross warned about winters onset.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called on his parliamentary party yesterday to support Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister, saying the country needs to be united as never before following Oct. 26 elections.
Despite the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine, acts of indiscriminate shelling and security incidents continue to put civilians at risk, the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement. The approaching winter makes the situation of both residents and displaced people even more difficult.
While the pact brokered by the European Union on Oct. 30 is designed to keep homes warm through the winter, rebels still hold large chunks of Ukraines east and are planning a controversial election tomorrow. Crimea remains under Russian control and the Kremlin, bristling at an EU accord Ukraine signed, is testing NATO with daily airspace violations.
Six government soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded by rebel fire in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the past 24 hours, military spokesman Volodomyr Polevyi said in a video briefing today. That pushes the death toll for Ukraines military to almost 1,000 since the fighting began, according to Polevyi. The United Nations estimates total deaths in the conflict at more than 4,000, with 1 million people displaced.
Russia continues to supply the militants and conduct surveillance from its side of the border, Polevyi said. A convoy of Russian trucks with 147 workers delivered humanitarian aid and left the country, he said.
Russias Emergency Ministry said its organizing another convoy that will include meat, sugar, construction materials, fuel and medicine, the RIA Novosti news service reported.
The EU didnt give any guarantees to Russia for Ukrainian gas payments, Marlene Holzner, energy spokeswoman for the European Commission, told reporters in Brussels yesterday. Earlier, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said any resumed supplies could be halted again on Jan. 1 if Ukraine doesnt pay $3.1 billion in debt prepay for future deliveries.
Parts of an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will go into effect provisionally today, covering such areas as the rule of law as well as the fight against crime and corruption.
The next flashpoint may be tomorrows vote in the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, which sparked a diplomatic row between the EU and Russia. The separatists are pushing ahead even as daily clashes test a truce signed Sept. 5. The insurgents violated the wobbly cease-fire 37 times in the previous 24 hours, the Defense Ministry in Kiev said on its Facebook page early today.
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Ukraine Fighting Flares After Gas Deal as Winter Nears