Ukraine conflict: Army claims strategic town in Donetsk
Areas of Donetsk have been hit by shelling, as Tom Burridge reports
The Ukrainian army says it has seized a key town near the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, as fighting rages in the east.
Pro-Russia separatists were driven out of Avdiivka on
Wednesday, the army said. The strategic town is near the airport and
train station in Donetsk.
Heavy fighting around Donetsk has again prevented international experts from reaching the crash site of flight MH17.
Details of fresh EU sanctions against Russia for its support to the Ukrainian rebels are expected shortly.
Almost two weeks after the Malaysia Airlines jet came down,
international monitors were turned back to the city of Donetsk at a
separatist checkpoint, with smoke rising in the distance from fighting.
Some critics say it is not in the interest of the Ukrainian
army for observers to get to the site as it would restrict their
offensive, says the BBC's Tom Burridge in Kharkiv.
Of course neither side would want observers or police to be
caught in the crossfire and the Ukrainian army may want to keep its
momentum going, he adds.
Donetsk has been hit by heavy government shelling in recent days
An international team of observers has struggled to access the MH17 crash site due to heavy fighting
Civilians seek refuge from incoming shelling in an underground car park in Donetsk
Regional officials in Donetsk said on Wednesday that 19 people had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours.
Ukraine says its troops have also entered the towns of Shakhtarsk and Torez in Donetsk region, and Lutuhyne in Luhansk region.
On Tuesday, the US announced new economic sanctions against
Russia, widening their scope to include three key sectors of the economy
- energy, arms and finance.
US nationals and people living in America will no longer be
able to bank with three Russian banks - the VTB, the Bank of Moscow and
the Russian Agriculture Bank (Rosselkhozbank).
Peace 'more important'
The EU is also expanding its sanctions, targeting the oil sector, defence equipment and sensitive technologies.
Sanctions are starting to bite in Russia, with the share
prices of VTB bank and the rouble down, as borrowers are squeezed by
rising interest rates, says the BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow.
Stocks at Russia's second largest bank, VTB, tumbled after the new sanctions were announced
A senior US state department official told the BBC that
Russia's central bank had been forced to spend tens of billions of
dollars in order to defend the rouble.
"If Russia continues on this current path, the costs on
Russia will continue to grow," said US President Barack Obama,
announcing the new round of sanctions.
In a statement on Wednesday, Russia's foreign ministry said the new US sanctions were "destructive and short-sighted".
"Such decisions by Washington can bring nothing but further aggravation of US-Russia relations," the statement said.
Russia retaliates
The first sign of retaliation came after Russia announced a ban on most fruit and vegetable imports from Poland.
Russia buys more than 2bn euros (£1.6bn; $2.7bn) worth of EU
fruit and vegetables a year, making it by far the biggest export market
for the products.
Polish fruit growers said the ban was political but Russia said the move was for sanitary reasons.
Meanwhile, Germany's Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said the
sanctions could hurt the German economy, which has strong trade links
with Russia.
"Nonetheless at a time of war and peace, economic policy is not the main consideration," he told journalists.
The list of 87 targets of EU sanctions now includes the heads
of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and foreign intelligence, the
president of Chechnya, as well as two Crimean energy firms.
However, UK company BP, which owns nearly 20% of Russian state oil giant Rosneft, said further sanctions could "adversely impact" its performance.
Russian press reacts to sanctions
- "The Russian authorities have been responding chaotically to emerging threats by taking instant ad hoc measures, but failing to calculate their systemic consequences" - Nezavisimaya Gazeta
- "Sources in Russian diplomatic circles say the Russian leadership hopes that the sectoral sanctions will be considerably less stringent when approved at the top level" - Kommersant
- "It is possible to say now that the Russian authorities mistakenly believed that Europeans would not risk introducing sectoral sanctions for fear that they might backfire" - Novyye Izvestiya
- "Russia is different not only because its economy is much more integrated into the world one. Russia is a nuclear power and a member of the World Trade Organization, which limits the possibility of pressure" - Vedomosti
Appeal for access
Russia has come under increased pressure to end its support
for the rebels, who Western governments believe were behind the downing
of MH17, killing 298 people.
Moscow has also been accused by the EU and US of supplying heavy weapons to the rebels - a charge it denies.
Flowers pile up at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, the starting point of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight
Australia's Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said on Wednesday his
government was focusing on retrieving Australian victims from the MH17
wreckage: "At the moment our focus is not on sanctions, our focus is on
bringing home our dead as quickly as we humanly can."
His comments follow that of US Secretary of State John Kerry,
who urged Russia and the rebels to allow Western investigators full
access to the crash site.
"They still can't even ensure that all of the victims'
remains have been removed, and that is an unsupportable burden for any
family to have to bear, and it is an unacceptable standard for
behaviour, period," he said.
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