A Ukrainian soldier has been killed in
fighting near the Donetsk Airport after weeks of relative calm in the war-torn
east, the first reported Ukrainian fatality during the fragile cease-fire since
mid-October.
Oleksandr Motuzyanik, a military spokesman, announced
the news on Oct. 27.
“Yesterday there was one armed incident on the
front line. Separatists who control the Donetsk Airport opened fire on Opytnoe
and Piski. As a result, one of our soldiers was killed. Along the rest of the
front, yesterday was calm,” Motuzyanik told journalists at a briefing on Oct.
27.
A representative for separatist authorities in
Donetsk told separatist media that the Ukrainian side had opened fire first
using mortar launchers. Ukrainian officials have denied this.
The Donetsk Airport had been the epicenter of
fierce fighting throughout much of the conflict, though in recent weeks it had
calmed down enough for international observers to visit the obliterated airport
on Oct. 13, when several bodies were recovered from the ruins.
The apparent flare-up in fighting comes as
both sides are meant to be removing heavy weaponry from the contact line in
accordance with the Minsk agreements, which have been hailed by the
international community as the only way to stop a war that has already claimed
more than 8,000 lives.
The latest death prompted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin to admit in a press conference on Oct. 27 that “there is no stable ceasefire.”
“Despite certain steps, we have a very complicated situation. Yesterday, another Ukrainian soldier died. We don’t have a stable ceasefire and the OSCE does not have real access to the territory of Donbas,” Klimkin told journalists.
Staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at [email protected].
