(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Ukraine said yesterday that dozens of tanks and truckloads of soldiers had crossed from Russia into Kremlin-backed rebel territory, as five servicemen were killed in fighting that made a mockery of a supposed ceasefire.
A column of 32 tanks, 16 howitzer cannons and 30 trucks carrying troops and equipment crossed the border into separatist-held Lugansk region on Thursday, Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said, adding that another convoy including three mobile radar stations had also entered the same area.
There was no way to confirm the claims independently.
Lysenko said five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 16 injured in the past 24 hours in clashes between government forces and pro-Moscow rebels, underscoring the emptiness of a two-month truce that both continue to insist they are respecting.
Fifteen civilians were wounded by shrapnel in the separatist bastion of Donetsk, the mayor's office said, in a night of shelling in two neighbourhoods near the ruins of the airport, where government troops are holding out.
A journalist reported heavy artillery bombardments had resumed in the area around the strategic transport hub late yesterday.
While the September truce agreement has seen full-scale confrontations halt along most of the frontline, shelling has continued at flashpoints around the industrial east. Claims of fresh troop movements are stoking fears of a return to all-out fighting.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a phone call of an escalation in the conflict following "significant departures" from the agreed peace plan, his office said.
The latest casualties came after Kiev had already moved to isolate the Kremlin-backed separatist regions, firming up the split of the ex-Soviet republic in a crisis that has sent East-West relations to their lowest ebb since the Cold War.
Some 150 mourners attended an emotional memorial service in the ravaged industrial hub for two teenage boys killed when a shell hit a school playing field Wednesday. Kiev and the insurgents blamed each other for the incident.
The rebels held leadership elections on Sunday, defying Kiev with a move that sought to formalise their control over the separatist-held territory.
In response, Ukraine's border guards announced obligatory passport controls around the rebel-held areas on Thursday, effectively setting up a de facto border despite Kiev's insistence that it has not given up on reclaiming sovereignty.
That move dovetailed with a government decision to sever state subsidies worth some $2.4bn (¤1.8bn) each year to the guerrilla regions, including pensions, though not heating gas and electricity. Kiev and the rebels inked peace accords in September aimed at saving Ukraine's unity and ending a conflict that has claimed over 4,000 lives, with rebel zones being given autonomy, but not independence.
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