Monday morning saw some of the heaviest fighting in eastern Ukraine since the fall of Debaltsevo, almost a week after the signing of the second Minsk “cease-fire” agreement.
According to Ukrainian reports, hundreds of Russian-backed fighters took part in an assault, supported by tanks and artillery fire, on positions near the village of Starognatovka, in the south of the Donetsk region. The attack was repelled and Ukrainian forces made their first territorial gains since February 10. Since then, heavy artillery and Grad rockets have rained down across this section of the front line.
Kiev, which had already called a war cabinet on August 4, has responded by warning the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and its Western partners that it reserves the right to return heavy weaponry, withdrawn in accordance with Minsk II, to the front line. Monday Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ordered his foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, to arrange emergency consultations with other members of the “Normandy Four” — France, Germany and Russia.
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