Ukraine shelling continues as top rebels visit Moscow

At least four people were killed and seven injured in shelling near rebel-held Donetsk in eastern Ukraine yesterday, amid rising tension and more sightings of military convoys in areas held by Russian-backed separatists.

Ukrainian officials said three civilians and a soldier died when artillery fire struck a residential area in Avdiivka, about 10km north of Donetsk, which is the industrialised region’s major city and rebel stronghold.

“Unfortunately, the situation is again serious,” German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said yesterday. “I now think that we must call upon all those involved in this conflict, as well as the Russian side, to return again to the terms of the Minsk protocol.”

The rebels and Kiev accuse each other of breaking a September 5th ceasefire protocol which reduced the intensity of fighting but failed to stop it, particularly around Donetsk's contested international airport. Senior US and EU officials have expressed fears that Russia may be responsible for the appearance in separatist-held territory of large columns of tanks, military trucks and field guns, all without insignia or number plates.

Russia accused

Nato has also accused Russia of again deploying major forces close to Ukraine's border, as it did before an

August rebel counteroffensive which Kiev and western military analysts said involved serving Russian troops.

Moscow denies involvement and claims Russian soldiers who have been killed there were volunteers. It has not explained how rebels have acquired large amounts of modern Russian weaponry or why its border remains open to arms and fighters.

The Kremlin says Ukraine is gripped by a civil war triggered by pro-western leaders who are allegedly anti-Russian and have “fascist” tendencies, while Kiev insists Moscow is stoking the conflict to stop Ukraine aligning with the EU and US.

The latest sharp resurgence in shelling around Donetsk, which has been abandoned by about one-third of its pre-conflict population of one million, coincided with separatist elections on November 2nd.

Kiev and its western allies say the votes in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics were a sham, but Russia has said it “respected” the ballots and leading militant figures met senior politicians in Moscow yesterday.

Andrei Purgin, the so-called deputy premier of the Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), told senators in Russia's upper house the election had given rebel leaders a strong mandate to continue.

Dual-currency plan

He said they were determined to establish their unrecognised pseudo-statelet as a functioning republic, and may

switch to a dual-currency system involving Ukraine’s hryvnia and the Russian rouble.

Alongside Mr Purgin was Alexander Karyakin, a senior figure in the "Luhansk People's Republic" (LNR), who said his region intended to establish all the organs of state before deciding whether to seek unification with Russia.

Ukraine is seeking to isolate separatist territory, by reinforcing nearby areas under Kiev’s control and halting all remaining wage and benefits payments, placing the onus on the separatists and their Russian backers.

Highlighting growing tension in government-held eastern provinces, a suspected bomb blast injured 11 people last night in Kharkiv, at a bar that raises funds for Ukrainian servicemen.

Washington and Brussels have threatened more economic sanctions on Russia if it fails to help de-escalate Ukraine's conflict, and Nato has noted a sharp increase in Russian military activity close to its member states.