AFP 15-01-2015 - 8:01 p.m. Bitter fighting at Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine Heavy fire of artillery and tanks reached Thursday Donetsk airport, which, although almost shaved, became the epicenter of renewed fighting between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukraine. OSCE representatives (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) tried twice Thursday to go there, but it finally gave face to the intensity of the bombing. The escalation in violence that began there nearly a week continues in the Donbass coalfield. If all of the front line seems to have woken up, the heart is the rebel stronghold of Donetsk and its airport, argue that since May the belligerents. The AFP journalists present on either side of the front line are found heavy fire and continuing throughout the day. The aim of these bombings is notably the most recent test of the two airport terminals, partly in the hands of the Ukrainians. Fighting for the airport reached the same intensity as their peak in late September-early October, said a Facebook war correspondent supporter of Kiev, Yuri Butusov, that several times, the belligerents n were only three or five meters away, almost in combat. An AFP journalist heard conversations between talkiewalkie Ukrainian soldiers that reported heavy fire from tanks to destroy one of the walls of the new terminal and asked for reinforcements. OSCE officials have unsuccessfully tried to go there. Arrived close, we felt that the situation was too unpredictable to go further, said an official of the mission, Alexander Hug, speaking of continuous fighting and attacks with heavy artillery from the two camps. These attacks are conducted from residential areas and their peripheries and cause a response that caused civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure, he added. In the evening, the Ukrainian army claimed to have triggered a cons-offensive and had pushed the rebels, but the battle continues. Kiev has reported two of its soldiers killed at the airport. A Vodiané village located six kilometers as the crow flies where Ukrainians take those of their knocked out at the airport, an AFP journalist saw in the afternoon one dead and five wounded, including two serious. - Act to a partial mobilization - In the Ukrainian capital, the secretary of the National Council of the Ukrainian Security Oleksandre Turchinov Thursday presented two scenarios for the future. The first is the large-scale resumption of hostilities and attacks with the active participation of the Russian armed forces, the consequences could be a continental war of great magnitude, he assured. The second involves Kremlins attempts to prevent the stabilization of the situation in Ukraine to exhaust economically and militarily. Mr. Turchinov also reiterated that Russia was directly involved in the conflict. He said 8,500 of the 38,000 men fighting the Ukrainian army are soldiers of the Russian army. About 52,000 additional troops are present near the border, with over 300 tanks and 1,800 other armored vehicles. Faced with this threat, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law providing for three waves of partial mobilization in 2015, the first of which will begin on 20 January and will affect approximately 50,000 people. Ukraine is preparing for war. We are ready to provide the appropriate response. We are not weak, replied the president of the Republic proclaimed Donetsk (DNR), Alexander Zakharchenko. Thursday was a day of national mourning in Ukraine in memory of the 13 civilians killed in a car hit by a rocket Volnovakha Tuesday in the bloodiest attack against civilians since the Minsk peace accords in September. Both sides continue to blame the tragedy.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 22:04:36 +0000