Heavy shelling increases fears for Ukraine cease-fire, Reuters reports:
Heavy shelling resumed around the pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said.
More than a dozen mortar bombs were heard in the city centre, though it was unclear who had launched them or what was under fire. Fighting has often centred around Donetsk airport which is outside the city centre.
Heavy shelling of Donetsk at the weekend increased concerns that a ceasefire between the rebels and government forces could crumble.
Some interesting comments from the new EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Berlin today on the situation in Ukraine, which she says is "clearly going in the wrong direction." However, no one seems to have asked her about how one of her spokespeople is married to a Gazprom lobbyist. (Mogherini starts taking about Ukraine around the 3-minute mark):
Here is a wrap from our news desk of comments in Kyiv by the OSCE's Micael Bociurkiw:
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says the risk of an escalation in violence in conflict-wracked eastern Ukraine is "rising."
Michael Bociurkiw of the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine told a press conference in Kyiv on November 11 that more than two months after a cease-fire agreement between Ukraine and the pro-Russian separatists, "the firing has not ceased."
There are concerns that pro-Russian rebels could be gearing up for a fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine despite the September 5 agreement.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on November 5 reiterated that EU member states were considering extending travel bans to newly-elected separatist officials in eastern Ukraine.
However, Merkel, speaking in Berlin, said the European Union was not planning new sanctions against Russia.
(AFP, Reuters)