Despite Cease-Fire, Fighting Escalates in Eastern Ukraine City

By CARLOTTA GALLSEPT. 14, 2014

Photo
A woman's body lay on a sidewalk after shelling near the Donetsk
international airport on Sunday. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York
Times
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DONETSK, Ukraine Heavy fighting broke out Sunday between
Ukrainian and rebel forces on the north side of Donetsk, killing at least
six people in one of the most serious clashes since the 10-day-old
cease-fire came into force. The airport, where Ukrainian troops are
almost surrounded, was on fire, billowing black smoke, and a house
and a city market burned just off the main boulevard inside the city.
Its not a cease-fire. Its full-on fighting, a rebel fighter said. Tanks
were out on the streets midafternoon, and pro-Russian rebel fighters
raced reinforcements along the main boulevard in civilian cars toward
their positions on the approaches to the airport.
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In a residential area just off the main boulevard, hospital workers
collected bodies from the sidewalks and homes hit hours earlier. They
took at least six, most of them of older adults who appeared to have
been walking home from the market, and a rebel policeman who had
been trying to guide people to cover when he was hit.

Photo
A womans home burned after being hit by shelling near Donetsk
airport in eastern Ukraine, the site of heavy fighting on Sunday. Credit
Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Artillery fire resounded for hours, through Saturday night and much of
the day Sunday, as Ukrainian forces at the airport and areas northwest
of the city traded fire with the separatist forces that control the city
and most of the surrounding territory. It was unclear who instigated the
fighting or why, but the sound of rifle fire at the airport midafternoon
indicated the two sides were engaged in close combat.
The two sides have shelled each other almost daily since the cease-fire
agreement was signed Sept. 5, each blaming the other for violations,
but generally the intense, large-scale battles of recent months have
ceased. Sundays action was, however, a marked escalation,
suggesting that one side or the other was on the attack.
Rebel fighters who brought one of their wounded to the city hospital
said fighting was underway in the contested village of Pesky, on the
outskirts of the city, where both sides have a foothold, they said.
Ukrainian troops had been strengthening their positions in the village
in recent days and were firing on rebel positions, they said. Tanks and
multiple rocket launchers also repeatedly sounded from rebel bases
inside the city.
Representatives of the Ukrainian military could not immediately be
reached for comment. Agence France-Presse quoted one official as
blaming the rebels, who he said had launched a broad offensive at the
airport.
The shelling inside the city at midday shocked residents, most of whom
have been venturing out shopping and fetching necessities since the
cease-fire started.
An older woman in white plastic sandals lay dead on the sidewalk
covered by a military blanket, her arms outstretched and her walking
stick beside her. Another woman was killed on a path leading toward
the nearby school, which took a direct hit. A third died in her yard, her
front gate ripped off its hinges by the shell blast.
The hospital workers were driving a battered gray van to collect the
bodies. They wrapped them in plastic and carried them on a canvas
stretcher to the van, sweating from the strain. At each stop the van
would barely start, and at one stop residents helped push the vehicle
to get it going.

Ambulance workers arrived to tend to a pensioner who had been struck

by shrapnel at the entrance to his apartment block. People had
dragged him inside the entrance, but he had bled to death in the three
hours it took for the ambulance to arrive, they said. His brother arrived
at the same time as the ambulance and crumpled against the door
weeping.
We dont know what war will be like if this is a cease-fire, said one of
his neighbors, taking a deep drag on a cigarette.
Yelena, a government worker, was coming home on the bus from
shopping when the shelling began about noon. She and another
woman got down from the bus and tried to proceed on foot.
We heard a whistle and fell on the ground, she said. They ran and
met the rebel policeman. He was trying to help and tell us where to
hide, she said. They took cover in a basement and seconds later he
was killed, she said. Like many interviewed in rebel-held areas she
would give only her first name, for fear of retribution.
The government gave no warning or advice to citizens, she said.
Nobody explains what is happening, she said. You hear a whistle
and it begins.
Further along a house was burning. Everything is gone. The whole
house is burned, a woman shouted on her cellphone. They tell you to
hide in the bathroom, but that is no good. Everything is burning,
everything.
No one was killed, as the family had moved away, but the house took a
direct hit and caught fire, neighbors said. As they spoke, two artillery
rounds fell close by and the small crowd scattered, running to a school
building for cover.
The woman was weeping now on her phone. Igor, dont come over
here. There is no point. Everything is gone and there is heavy shelling
again. Dont come, Igor. Dont come.