KIEV: Ukraine appealed to Western powers for support as its truce with pro-Russian rebels seemed increasingly in tatters with 12 deaths reported today in the separatist east.
The toll was one of the highest reported since the signing of the September 5 truce agreement, and brings the number of civilians killed in sporadic mortar and rocket attacks to 14 since the weekend.
Insurgency leaders signed up to the peace pact but soon accused Kiev of breaking the ceasefire.
Some have since vowed to keep fighting until all Ukrainian forces pull out of their self-proclaimed states.
The heaviest daily clashes are being waged around the northern outskirts of the main rebel-held city of Donetsk, where outnumbered government forces have been holding on to a besieged airport since the end of May.
Kiev’s military said today that rebels were still attacking Donetsk airport, where the five soldiers were killed.
The military has also accused pro-Russian forces of attacking its positions near Mariupol, the government-held industrial port on the Sea of Azov that was the target of a surprise rebel counter-offensive one month ago.
Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, meanwhile, was putting pressure on the government to pass key anti-corruption legislation to secure emergency financial aid.
The US diplomat began a three-day visit with talks with the Ukrainian leadership Monday and was due to meet with border guards Wednesday after the United States provided them with USD3 million worth of equipment to bolster the frontier with Russia.
She discussed US economic aid for Ukraine with President Petro Poroshenko, and the need for Kiev to regain full control over the Russian border.
“Without full border control by Ukraine, it is impossible to reach peaceful regulation” of the crisis, Poroshenko said.
More 3,300 people have been killed in nearly six months of warfare.
Poroshenko later lamented the “lack of sustainable progress” of the ceasefire while speaking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Russia should use its influence on the separatists in a more pronounced manner to contribute to stabilisation,” Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said after the phone call.
Kiev and the West have accused Moscow of meddling and sending troops to eastern Ukraine, including supplying the separatist assault on the Donetsk airport with surveillance drones and “Russian specialists” to operate them.
However the European Union held back from introducing more stringent sanctions on Russia, and the incoming foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Russia is “still a strategic country and a neighbour” that needs “a mix of assertiveness and diplomacy.”
Moscow has denied all allegations of stirring the conflict, with President Vladimir Putin noting the “fragility of the ceasefire” during a top security meeting in Moscow.
Western lenders have made anti-corruption and political reform measures one of their main demands on Kiev as they disburse some USD27 billion in urgent aid.
Both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are also pressing Ukraine – it’s economy set to shrink by 6.5 percent this year, according to the Fund – to adopt structural reforms that could open the way to growth.
“Nobody gives money to corrupt countries and investors don’t go to corrupt countries,” Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said today as the Ukrainian parliament gave initial backing for a bill establishing an anti-corruption bureau in the country.
“Delaying or failing to pass these bills will create serious problems,” Poroshenko said as he met with leading MPs Monday on the eve of the vote.
The laws would “create a strong framework for tackling the systemic corruption that has crippled social well being and economic growth,” Transparency International said.
However the reforms have been stymied by parties opposing the new pro-Western government, notably those formerly allying with deposed president Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country in February.
-- AFP