Skip to main content

Kiev strikes rebel positions as ceasefire ends

KIEV unleashed air and artillery strikes against rebel positions in eastern Ukraine today after billionaire President Petro Poroshenko ended a 10-day ceasefire.

Defence Ministry spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkovsky said that the armed forces had “opened artillery fire, carried out air strikes at terrorists’ strategic points and places where they are concentrated.”

Mr Poroshenko originally offered a ceasefire to persuade the rebels to lay down their weapons and hold peace talks and although pro-Russian forces signed up to the truce, each side blamed the other for continued fighting. 

“We will attack and free our lands,” said Mr Poroshenko yesterday.

“The decision not to continue the ceasefire is our answer to terrorists, militants and marauders.”

He claimed to have abandoned the peace initiative after key conditions such as turning over border crossings and international monitoring of the ceasefire remained unmet.

“The unique chance to implement the peace plan was not realised. It happened because of the criminal actions of the militants,” he claimed. 

“They publicly declared their unwillingness to support the peace plan as a whole and in particular the ceasefire.”

European Union leaders have been pressing Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his influence with the rebels to broker peace.

But the West claims that Russia is sending weapons to the rebels and allowing Russian citizens to cross the border to fight — which Moscow has denied.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow was ready to allow OSCE security and rights monitors and Ukraine’s border guards to enter the Russian side of the border for joint control.

Mr Putin accused Mr Poroshenko of having “taken up full responsibility for the continuation of this military campaign.”

He said that everyone in Europe needed “a safety net so that the Iraqi, Libyan, Syrian and Ukrainian precedents do not turn into an infectious disease.”

The Russian leader suggested that Nato expansion up to Russia’s borders had prompted the annexation of Crimea.

“Our country will continue to defend the rights of Russians, our compatriots abroad and to use our entire arsenal, from political and economic means to the right to self-defence, as provided for in international law,” he stressed.

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 13,288
We need:£ 4,712
3 Days remaining
Donate today