This video was uploaded to YouTube on October 5 and shows the devastasting firepower of Grad rockets. When these missiles were fired is difficult to determine, but the intensity of the barrage cannot be denied. The soldier at the start of the video is speaking Ukrainian. The Grad barrage starts at 1:25.
From an AFP report titled "One Month In, Ukraine Truce Exists In Name Only." Read the full report here.
DONETSK -- Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels marked a month since the signing of a Kremlin-backed truce on Sunday by engaging in one of the most heated battles of their six-month war over the ex-Soviet state's eastern rustbelt.
The artillery blasts that rocked the frontline city of Donetsk were yet another blow to the 12-point peace agreement signed on September 5, and which is officially still in force.
"There is no cease-fire. You hear?" 31-year-old resident Yekaterina Manannikova said, pointing in the direction of Donetsk airport, once a glittering showcase for the biggest city in the east, now the battered scene of a nonstop firefight.
"Peace is already declared, how many times should it be declared to be effective? Two, three times?" said another local, Vitaliy Chura, 29, blaming the separatists for the continued fighting.
The agreement -- aimed at ending almost six months of war that has claimed over 3,300 lives -- included a promise to create a 30-kilometer buffer zone between the two forces.
But Ukraine's military says Kyiv will not start pulling back forces until rebels stop firing on its positions, including at the airport.
Intense footage uploaded to YouTube on October 5 showing pro-Russian rebels using machine guns, RPGs, and tanks during what appears to be their assault on the Donetsk airport. The date the footage was taken is unknown.
From our News Desk:
NATO's new chief says the alliance wants "constructive" relations with Russia despite moves to bolster the defense of member states in Eastern Europe.
Jens Stoltenberg, who is on his first trip abroad since becoming NATO secretary-general last week, spoke in an interview published in the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" on October 6.
"There is no contradiction between a strong NATO and building constructive relations with Russia," he said.
Stoltenberg pledged NATO would respect its international commitments, including a post-Cold War deal with Moscow limiting deployments in the former communist bloc.
In comments broadcast on October 5, Stoltenberg told the Polish state broadcaster TVP Info that NATO could deploy its forces "wherever" it wanted, potentially calling into question its 1997 promise to Russia that it would not permanently station significant combat forces in the east.
Relations between NATO and Moscow are badly strained by the Ukraine crisis.