Ukraine - the ceasefire that wasn't

It was always a given that the Ukrainians would use a ceasfire to regroup so they could resume their attack.

When i woke this morning Twitter was full of reports of violations of the ceasfire

Donetsk source: Ukrainian troops continue attacks

The high-ranking source said: “Kiev’s statements about a ceasefire were only statements. These are statements only on paper and in the air. In reality, it does not seem to be truth”

DONETSK, September 6 (Itar-Tass) - Ukrainian forces do not observe the ceasefire, continuing shelling Donetsk and positions of the Donetsk Republic’s militia near Mariupol, co-chairman of the People’s Front of Novorossia political movement Konstantin Dolgov told Itar-Tass on Saturday.

None of truce agreements concluded with Poroshenko has been observed. Ukrainian forces continue artillery strikes on Donetsk and its suburbs and do not stop firing in Mariupol, he said.

Donetsk militias ready to cease fire if Kiev reciprocates - Donetsk republic PM

The Defence Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic said on Saturday that Gorlovka was under mortar fire. A coalmine was shelled in Makeyevka at about midnight. Fire was opened on the town of Yasinovataya. Ukrainian troops also fired from armoured vehicle weapons at Donetsk airport.

“Now it is relatively calm in the city,” a defence ministry source said.

The high-ranking source said “Kiev’s statements about a ceasefire were only statements. These are statements only on paper and in the air. In reality, it does not seem to be truth,” he said.

The Donetsk and Lugansk republic’s forces observed the truce, he added.

On Friday, the Donetsk Republic’s Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko, after the meeting of the contact group in Minsk, ordered by telephone to stop fire, and the ceasefire is observed, the source said.

He also said that Ukrainian troops were seen redeploying in the Mariupol area.

Itar-Tass had no confirmation of the information from other sources.

Ukrainian authorities assure ceasefire observed

An agreement on a truce between the conflict parties was reached in eastern Ukraine previously on June 20, but Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko cancelled the truce on June 30, saying it was unilateral. During the period, Kiev troops repeatedly fired from artillery guns and mortars at residential areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. They also used heavy weapons against militia forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 3 proposed a peace plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine. The plan called for stopping offenses by all forces in southeastern Ukraine, withdrawal of armed forces at a safe range from residential sites, international monitoring of ceasefire observance, no use of military aircraft against civilians, swap of all captives, opening humanitarian corridors and repair of the infrastructure.

An agreement on ceasefire and a settlement plan was reached during the meeting of the contact group in Minsk on September 5 with the participation of representatives from Kiev, southeastern Ukrainian regions, the OSCE and Russia

Four Donetsk Residents Died in Shelling First Night After Ukraine Ceasefire: Militia

RIA Novosti,

7 September 2014

DONETSK, September 6 (RIA Novosti) – Four residents of Ukraine’s eastern city of Donetsk were killed by shelling on Friday night, the first night after ceasefire was agreed in the country, according to militia headquarters.

“Kyivskyi, Kuibyshevskyi, Petrovskyi districts of Donetsk were shelled, four civilians were killed, ten others sustained shrapnel wounds,” the headquarters reported Saturday.

Also on Friday evening APC and automatic grenade launchers opened fire on the self-defense forces gathered near the Donetsk Airport, still controlled by the Ukrainian military, according to the headquarters.

On the eve of the second meeting of a trilateral contact group on Ukraine in Minsk, Kiev authorities and rebel forces agreed on a truce that started at 6:00 p.m. Kiev time (15:00 GMT) on Friday.

The representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) met Friday to discuss way of resolving the Ukrainian crisis.

The group held the first round of peace talks in the Belarusian capital on August 26.

Militia to release all captives this Saturday, Kiev on September 8

Meanwhile, Donetsk sources said Ukrainian forces did not observe the ceasefire

ITAR-TASS,

6 Setepmber, 2014

KIEV, September 6 (Itar-Tass) - The militia in eastern Ukraine hold more than 200 Ukrainian servicemen in captivity, the head of the information centre of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, Andrei Lysenko, said on Saturday.

Ukrainian authorities assure ceasefire observed

A special centre set up at the Security Service is to establish the exact number of captives, he said. The centre is set up to help free captives and find missing people

The militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic will release all the captured Ukrainian soldiers this Saturday, September 6, and Kiev’s authorities pledge to release captives on Monday, September 8, the eastern region's Novorossia news agency cited the republic’s Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko as saying.

“Despite ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian military, the militia will release Ukrainian captives. It will happen already today, and the transfer of prisoners of war from the side of Kiev will be carried out on Monday,” he said.

Ukrainian forces observe the ceasefire in the east of the country, Lysenko said on Saturday.

All the units of the forces have strictly obeyed the supreme commander’s order and observed the ceasefire since 18:00 (19:00 Moscow time), September 5, he said.

The situation on the whole became calmer in the zone of the Kiev military operation after the ceasefire was declared, but some provocations from the militia side were reported overnight, he said.

The official said fire was opened on positions of Ukrainian troops ten times after 19:00, September 5. Nobody was hurt.

Meanwhile, Donetsk sources said Ukrainian forces did not observe the ceasefire, continuing shelling Donetsk and positions of the Donetsk Republic’s militia near Mariupol.

"None of truce agreements concluded with Poroshenko has been observed. Ukrainian forces continue artillery strikes on Donetsk and its suburbs and do not stop firing in Mariupol," co-chairman of the People’s Front of Novorossia political movement Konstantin Dolgov told Itar-Tass on Saturday.

The Defence Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic also reported on Saturday that Gorlovka was under mortar fire overnight. A coalmine was shelled in Makeyevka at about midnight. Fire was opened on the town of Yasinovataya, and Ukrainian troops also fired from armoured vehicle weapons at Donetsk airport.

“Now it is relatively calm in the city,” a defence ministry source said

The high-ranking source said “Kiev’s statements about a ceasefire were only statements. These are statements only on paper and in the air. In reality, it does not seem to be truth.”

The Donetsk and Lugansk republics’ forces observed the truce, he added.

Donetsk source: Ukrainian troops continue attacks

"On Friday, the Donetsk Republic’s Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko, after the meeting of the contact group in Minsk, ordered by telephone to stop fire, and the ceasefire has been observed," the source said.

He also said that Ukrainian troops were seen redeploying in the Mariupol area.

Itar-Tass had no confirmation of the information from other sources.

An agreement on a truce between the conflict parties was reached in eastern Ukraine previously on June 20, but Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko cancelled the truce on June 30, saying it was unilateral. During the period, Kiev troops repeatedly fired from artillery guns and mortars at residential areas in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. They also used heavy weapons against militia forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 3 proposed a peace plan to settle the crisis in Ukraine. The plan called for stopping offensives by all forces in southeastern Ukraine, withdrawal of armed forces at a safe range from residential sites, international monitoring of ceasefire observance, no use of military aircraft against civilians, swap of all captives, opening humanitarian corridors and repair of the infrastructure.

An agreement on a ceasefire and a settlement plan was reached during the meeting of the contact group in Minsk on September 5 with the participation of representatives from Kiev, southeastern Ukrainian regions, the OSCE and Russia.

This is the view from the Guardian

Ukraine ceasefire under threat amid claims of shelling near crucial port city

Reports of sustained bombardment in Mariupol's outskirts, while Ukrainian fighters claim to have been targeted by rocket fire

the Guardian,

6 Sepetember, 2014

Witnesses in the Ukrainian port of Mariupol reported sustained explosions outside the city and a volunteer battalion of Ukrainian fighters said that Grad rockets had been fired at its positions.

The reports late on Saturday came little more than a day after Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist rebels signed a ceasefire after more than four months of fighting in the country's east. Witnesses in Mariupol told the Associated Press that sounds of heavy explosions were coming from the city's eastern outskirts, where Ukrainian troops retain defensive lines against the rebels.

The volunteer Azov battalion said on Facebook that their positions were hit by Grad rockets, but did not give details.

Earlier in the day the truce had appeared to be holding, with only minor violations reported, as hopes mounted that the deal struck in Minsk on Friday could bring an end to the violence that has left more than 2,000 dead in recent months.

Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire, but there did not appear to be any serious exchanges of fire and no casualties were reported. Nevertheless, the rhetoric coming from Kiev and Donetsk, capital of the Russia-backed rebel movement, showed that a political solution was still some way away.

The atmosphere between the two frontlines on Saturday was tense but calm, as both sides took stock of what appear to have been heavy losses in the final fighting that led up to the ceasefire.

The fiercest fighting on Friday came in the villages between Novoazovsk and Mariupol, the strategic port city that Ukrainians feared would be attacked by separatists over the past week. Rebel forces seized the town of Novoazovsk, across the border with Russia, 10 days ago. Kiev says the rebels were aided by soldiers and armour of the regular Russian army, which helped turn the tide against Ukraine's forces and push Kiev towards accepting a ceasefire.

At one point on the main road, a Ukrainian tank had been hit so hard on Friday it had been thrown back on to a huge stone wave-breaker placed on the road, its treads spooling out behind it.

Fields all around were scorched, and in some places smoke was still rising from where Grad missiles had landed the day before. In a nearby village, three Ukrainian tanks had been abandoned in the courtyard of a school kindergarten. Two were burned out, while one was untouched but had clearly been left in a hurry, rucksacks and personal possessions of its occupants left strewn around it, a sticker reading "Fuck off Putin" stuck to the base of its turret.

The windows of the kindergarten had all been blown out, its roof removed, and there were gaping holes in the walls, apparently from mortar rounds.

"The tanks came in about six in the morning," said one villager who did not want to give his name. "As soon as they set up position there, you could hear the booms come in from that direction," he said, pointing at the pro-Russia lines. It was unclear whether those in the tanks had escaped alive.

There was anger in the village, which until Saturday had seen no major fighting, over the destruction of the school. "See what a glorious army we have," said one middle-aged woman, sarcastically. "Parked their tanks up in our kindergarten, now the whole thing has gone."

In Mariupol, there was a more-relaxed atmosphere, as for the first day in a week there was no suggestion that rebel forces might attempt to enter. The residents are far from unanimous supporters of the Kiev government; many here would have preferred the region to be annexed by Russia. But most simply want peace.

Fighters from the Azov battalion, the volunteer grouping with far-right leanings that has done much of the fighting around Mariupol, sat on a restaurant terrace eating pizzas; families strolled in the sunshine, wedding parties breezed through central streets beeping horns.

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko spoke by telephone with Vladimir Putin on Saturday on ways to make the ceasefire last, but the final political solution remains unclear.

Alexander Zakharchenko, prime minister of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, travelled to Moscow from the negotiations, and told journalists on Saturday that the peace talks had "legitimised" his quasi-country, and it should be regarded as on an equal footing with Ukraine.

Analysts have suggested that Moscow is likely to push either for a "breakaway state" which will be unrecognised internationally but function independently, or for east Ukraine to be de facto part of Ukraine but with such autonomy that it can essentially become a proxy region for Russia, ensuring that the rest of Ukraine can never join Nato or fully orient its foreign policy westward.

On Saturday, Patriarch Filaret, the head of the Kiev Patriarchate, accused Putin of being under Satan's influence. "This ruler is cynically lying, saying his country is not a party to the conflict in Ukraine, though he did everything in order to foment the conflict and maintain it," said Filaret in a statement. "He calls himself a brother to the Ukrainian people, but in fact according to his deeds, he has really become the new Cain, shedding the brotherly blood and entangling the whole world with lies."

Grad shelling filmed outside Mariupol as ceasefire deadline closes

User's video shows GRAD rocket barrage hitting countryside near the town. It is unclear who fired the rockets. GRADs have been widely used in the conflict that has left almost 3,000 civilians dead and over 1,000,000 displaced.

“The ceasefire holds' - This is the propagaganda view from Kiev