Ukraine says no cease-fire until rebels surrender

A Ukrainian military spokesman on Sunday dismissed a call for a cease-fire by a separatist leader, saying this could only take place once rebels had shown "white flags" and surrendered.

Meanwhile the separatists stepped back from their earlier talk of a possible cease-fire and said the Ukrainian army had to first end military action.

Government forces on Sunday tightened the circle around the rebels' main redoubt, the big industrial city of Donetsk. Residents there reported heavy shelling from early in the morning.

A senior leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic had said on Saturday that the rebels were ready for a truce with government forces to allow humanitarian aid to be brought in.

Replying to a journalist's question on Sunday, military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said, "If there is this initiative, it should be carried out by practical means and not by words - by raising white flags and by putting down guns."

"We have not seen these practical steps yet," he said.

In a statement released later the rebels said they remained ready for a temporary truce to head off "a humanitarian catastrophe".

But they added defiantly: "As long as the Ukrainian army is continuing military action there can be no cease-fire."

On Saturday, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the so-called prime minister of the Donetsk separatists, said in a statement on a rebel website: "We are prepared to stop firing to bar the spread of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe in Donbass" in eastern Ukraine.

His motive for offering a cease-fire was not clear, but his comments could be aimed at increasing the pressure on Ukraine to allow in a Russian aid mission.

Russia, which the Ukrainian government in Kiev and Western countries allege is supporting the rebels, has called repeatedly for a humanitarian mission into eastern Ukraine. But Kiev and the West suggest that could be just a pretext to send Russian forces into the region. Ukraine and the West say that about 20,000 Russian forces have gathered just across the border.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued a statement late Saturday saying that Ukraine is prepared to accept humanitarian assistance in eastern Ukraine. But he said the aid must come in without military accompaniment, it must pass through border checkpoints under Ukrainian control, and the mission must be international in character.

Poroshenko said he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed German participation in such a mission.

In Washington, the White House said US President Barack Obama and Merkel agreed that any Russian intervention in Ukraine was unacceptable and would violate international law.

Artillery reverberated on Saturday across Donetsk, home to nearly 1 million people before 300,000 fled the conflict.

"The situation is getting worse with every hour," Donetsk city council spokesman Maxim Rovinsky said.

At least one person was killed and 18 wounded in shelling that hit about 30 apartment blocks on Saturday in Donetsk, he said, adding that about 2,000 residential buildings had no electricity.

City streets were nearly empty of cars and pedestrians, and most stores were closed. Explosions were also heard near Donetsk's airport.

Ukrainian officials have consistently denied that their forces are shelling civilians, but the rebels dismiss that and claim the government is aiming to blame the insurgents for the increasing death and destruction. Ukraine says the rebels have deliberately put rocket launchers in populated areas.

"We're afraid of the Ukrainian army, which is firing on the city, and of the rebels of the Donetsk People's Republic, who are robbing and killing civilians," said Dmitry Andronov, a 47-year-old resident.

Reuters - AP

Volunteers remove the last of the barricades and tent camps on Saturday that had blocked the main street of Ukraine's capital, Kiev, since protests that forced a change of government arose late last year. Efrem Lukasky

(China Daily 08/11/2014 page12)