Ukraine Says Rebels Moving Tanks Up, Attacks Persist
By RFE/RL
Ukrainian authorities are accusing Russian-backed separatists of moving tanks, weapons, and fighters closer to the line of contact with government forces in the east of the country.
In a statement issued on March 23, Interior Ministry adviser Zoryan Shkiryak said that 10 to 12 tanks had arrived overnight in Horlivka, a rebel-held city close to the front line.
Shkiryak said that "the enemy continues to concentrate its forces in occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk," a reference to two provinces held in part by the separatists.
The Ukranian military, meanwhile, said that six government soldiers were wounded in the previous 24 hours despite a cease-fire deal signed in Minsk last month.
More than 6,000 people have been killed in the conflict in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
Fighting has lessened since the cease-fire took effect on February 15, but fighting persists and the prospects for a resolution of the conflict are clouded by disputes over other aspects of the peace deal.
With reporting by Unian
Ukraine to stop buying Russian gas from April 1 -energy minister
KIEV, March 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine plans to stop buying Russian gas from April 1, Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said in a briefing on Monday.
"At the moment we don't need to buy Russian gas. We will simply stop buying it," Demchyshyn said.
On Saturday, he said that Ukraine was confident Russia would have to lower the price it charges Kiev for gas as increased imports from the European Union have greatly reduced Ukraine's reliance on supplies from Gazprom.
Russia and Ukraine are discussing a new pricing arrangement once the current package expires at the end of March.
Yanukovych's Former Party Confirms Son's Death
By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
The Ukrainian political party formerly headed by Viktor Yanukovych has confirmed the death of the ousted ex-president's younger son.
The Party of Regions said in a statement on March 23 that the life of Yanukovych's son, also named Viktor, was "tragically cut short on March 20."
"Death obliges us to forget about politics," the statement said.
It did not say how Yanukovych, 33, died.
News reports and Ukrainian lawmakers said on March 22 that the minivan he was driving fell though ice in Russia's Lake Baikal.
Anton Herashchenko, a lawmaker and aide to Ukraine's interior minister, said on Facebook that the vehicle sank in the Siberian lake after falling onto the driver's side.
Herashchenko said all five passengers survived and "four of them didn't even get their feet wet."
Yanukovych, a former Party of Regions lawmaker, was reportedly going by the name of Viktor Davydov.
The senior Yanukovych and most of his family have lived in Russia since he was chased from office in February 2014 after months of protests over his decision to reject a deal tightening ties with the EU and turn toward Moscow.
With reporting by Interfax, AP, BBC, Dozhd, and SiberianTimes.com
No military solution to Ukraine conflict - Germany's Steinmeier
BRATISLAVA, March 23 (Reuters) - The crisis in Ukraine does not and cannot have a military solution and the involved parties must avoid any steps that could led to a new escalation of the situation, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday.
"One thing is clear I think to all of us: there is no, and there cannot be, a military solution to the crisis in Ukraine," Steinmeier told reporters after meeting his counterparts from four central European countries in Bratislava.
He said senior German, Ukrainian, and Russian officials would meet in Paris on Wednesday to discuss an oversight mechanism for a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
Seven hurt in Ukraine clashes, rebels accused of Grad attack
Kiev, March 23, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukraine on Monday accused pro-Russian separatists of firing heavy Grad rockets in violation of a shaky ceasefire between the two sides, as seven people were reported injured in fresh clashes.
Six Ukrainian soldiers were wounded during fighting over the last 24 hours, army spokesman Andriy Lysenko said, stoking fears of an escalation in violence following a month of relative peace since the signing of the agreement.
The interior ministry also said that a civilian had suffered a shrapnel wound in the government-held town of Dzerzhynsk, after it came under mortar fire late Sunday.
Lysenko warned that "the situation remained unstable" along the whole conflict line, where rebels had used mortars, grenades and heavy weapons, against the terms of the ceasefire.
The army earlier reported that separatists had overnight Sunday fired 120mm mortars in the village of Pisky and used tanks in nearby Opytne, both close to the hotspot of Donetsk Airport.
Kiev also said its forces repelled an attempt to storm one of their positions in the village of Shyrokyne, close to the strategic port of Mariupol, the largest city still under government control in the conflict zone.
More seriously, they claim that rebels fired heavy Grad rockets on Orikhove, a frontline village north west of separatist stronghold Lugansk.
It is the second time that rebels have been accused of using the multiple rocket launchers since the peace deal came into effect on February 15.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, the two sides agreed to pull back their heavy arms to create a buffer zone of between 50 kilometres and 140 kilometres (31 miles and 87 miles), depending on the range of the weaponry.
Ukraine's interior ministry on Monday said a convoy of military equipment, including 10 tanks, had entered the rebel-held town of Gorlivka, 10 kilometres north of Donetsk.
Despite the recent lull in fighting that has claimed over 6,000 lives since April, experts from a Ukrainian think-tank warned that a new offensive could be launched "in the coming weeks".
According to the Kiev-based International Centre for Policy Studies, rebels are gathering troops "all across the front line."
Separatist forces currently comprise around 35,000 to 40,000 fighters, including up to 10,000 Russian fighters, it added.
Ukraine's defence ministry on Sunday said the near year-long conflict had claimed the lives of 1,750 Ukranian soldiers.