Just in from Reuters:
Pro-Russian separatists have suffered their worst casualties since a cease-fire officially began on Sept. 5, losing 12 men in attacks on buildings at Donetsk airport, Ukrainian military officials said on Saturday.
The cease-fire in eastern Ukraine has become increasingly frayed in recent days, leading to the death of a number of civilians and soldiers as well as a Red Cross worker in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
"The airport of Donetsk remains the priority target for terrorists. Yesterday they resorted to a few, fortunately unsuccessful, attempts to storm it," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
"Twelve [separatists] were killed during the attacks and that is the biggest single loss among rebels since Sept. 5," he added.
Lysenko said that two Ukrainian servicemen were killed during the past 24 hours, but he gave no further details.
Ukrainian officials accused Russian forces on Friday of helping separatists to step up pressure on government troops holding the airport in Donetsk, threatening a fragile cease-fire.
The latest UN estimate is that more than 3,500 people have died in the conflict which erupted after pro-Western leaders took power in Kyiv following street protests that chased Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich from power.
Intense video of some of the recent fighting for the Donetsk airport:
From the French news agency AFP:
Germany hopes to send 200 soldiers to Ukraine to help protect the OSCE mission monitoring the cease-fire in the restive east, the "Bild" newspaper reported Saturday.
Fifty members of the parachute regiment would be among the contingent, which must still be approved by Germany's parliament, the daily said, without naming its sources.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the French and German governments were working with the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on ways to support its mission in Ukraine.
"For the moment, it consists only of exploratory discussions," the spokesman said, adding that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had discussed the topic during meetings in Paris on Friday.
The two countries are already considering sending drones to help monitor the OSCE mission in Ukraine, the French Foreign Ministry said Monday.
Sad news just in from AFP, confirming an earlier tweet:
Two children were killed and five were injured in rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine when they tried to move an unexploded shell, regional authorities said Saturday.
The incident late Friday occurred in Zugres, a town about 30 kilometers east of Donetsk, the largest city controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
"Seven schoolchildren found an unexploded shell. When they tried to relocate it, it exploded. As a result, two children died on the spot. Five more were injured and hospitalized," said a statement on the website of the pro-Kyiv Donetsk region administration.
Zugres lies in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, where separatists have proclaimed independence and where fighting between rebel forces and Kyiv's army has killed nearly 3,300 people since April.
This just in from the Associated Press:
DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) -- A month-long cease-fire in Donetsk looks like this: nine civilians killed on Wednesday, a Red Cross staffer killed Thursday, scores killed and wounded since the fighting was supposed to stop.
Day after day, artillery shells and rockets fly overhead. Many explode in densely populated residential areas as the rebels have fought to dislodge Ukrainian government forces from the Donetsk airport just north of the city.
"All windows in our house were shaking, I was sitting on my bed and I had to hold tight not to fall," said Valentina Ryabchevskaya, a Donetsk resident, describing a recent shelling near her home. "Windows were shaking, doors in cabinets opened. It's terrible how they treat people."
The barrage has intensified this week, with shells hitting apartment buildings, a school, a bus stop, and the Red Cross office. The United Nations and the European Union voiced concern about the fighting that threatens to derail a fragile truce that has held in most other areas in eastern Ukraine since it was declared on Sept. 5.
Negotiators representing Russia, Ukraine, pro-Russian rebels and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe tried to consolidate the cease-fire with a follow-up agreement to create a buffer zone that requested each party to pull its artillery 15 kilometers (9 miles) back from the frontline.
The deal has helped reduce hostilities, but fighting has continued at a few strategic locations. Donetsk, home to a million people before the conflict, has remained the main flashpoint. ...
For Ukraine, the airport has become a symbol of its military valor, and losing it would be certain to fuel public anger against President Petro Poroshenko, who has faced criticism for caving in to Russia by accepting a truce. A retreat from the airport would undoubtedly put the Ukrainian leader in more trouble ahead of Oct. 26 parliamentary elections, which he hopes will help cement his grip on power. ...
The airport is a thorn at the rebels' side, a key bridgehead from which the Ukrainian forces could target rebel positions in Donetsk. Andrei Purgin, a rebel leader, said that the government forces must be pushed at least 15 kilometers (9 miles) back from the airport to make the city safe. ...
The airport was rebuilt to modern standards a couple of years before the conflict. The new glass-and-steel main terminal is now a hulking ruin, but the airport's 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) runway could receive large cargo planes with supplies -- potentially a major asset for the region that so far has relied exclusively on truck convoys bringing aid from Russia.
The rebels have repeatedly tried to capture the facility. They suffered a particularly painful defeat in May, losing dozens of men when Ukrainian forces pummeled them with fighter jets, helicopter gunships and artillery.
The insurgents have since become more cautious, periodically probing the airport's defenses and firing artillery at Ukrainian positions. Rebel chiefs say it has been challenging to storm the airport because Ukrainian forces have relied on a sprawling maze of tunnels and bunkers dating from Soviet times.
During the week, the rebels made some gains around the airport, seizing a few buildings on the perimeter that allowed them to target the government forces with higher precision.
During Friday's fighting, an AP reporter saw rebel tanks firing salvo after salvo at the main terminal as snipers shots rang across the area.