There has been renewed fighting around the Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine. The clashes threaten to undermine a truce and come as regional elections are held in Crimea, the territory annexed by Russia in March, reports GHN based on DW.
News agencies on Sunday reported heavy fighting around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, a development that threatens to derail a ceasefire agreement struck a little over a week ago.
Most of the violence appeared to be concentrated near the city's government-held airport (pictured above), where Kyiv's forces said they were facing intensifying attacks after driving back a major rebel assault of more than 100 fighters on Friday.
"The terrorist actions are threatening the realization of the Ukrainian president's peace plan," National Security and Defense Council spokesman Volodymyr Polyovyi told journalists on Sunday. Ukrainian officials and media regularly call the pro-Russia separatists terrorists.
However, insurgent forces have heaped blame for the fresh violence on the Ukrainian military. Two residential neighborhoods near the airport came under repeated shelling on Sunday, according to the city council of Donetsk.
"From our side, nobody is shooting but they are breaking the rules, everybody in the world knows it," a rebel commander told the news agency AFP.