Hospital Shelled in East Ukraine as Calls Mount for Truce
Shelling at a hospital in east Ukraine killed four people on Wednesday ahead of a visit to Kiev by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that will see possible arms supplies high on the agenda.
The latest deaths came as international pressure grew for an immediate halt to surging violence which has seen hundreds of civilians killed in recent weeks as pro-Russian rebels pushed into government-held territory.
An AFP journalist saw a body lying next to the crater from a mortar blast that caused extensive damage to the hospital in a western suburb of the rebel stronghold Donetsk.
Two more dead civilians were sprawled outside a nearby residential building and a local resident said another elderly man was killed in his home.
Alexander, a 60-year-old miner, and his wife were waiting for their son when the shell hit as he came out of the hospital after a check-up.
"The blast threw him against the wall. The shrapnel killed him," Alexander told AFP.
"When we got to him he was still breathing a little."
Eight other civilians were killed in clashes around the region over the past 24 hours, rebel and government officials said.
As the death toll ticked up EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini called for an immediate ceasefire to allow civilians to escape the fighting.
"The spiral of ever-increasing violence in eastern Ukraine needs to stop," Mogherini said.
Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe have demanded a "local temporary truce" around the battleground town of Debaltseve for the next three days.
The strategic railway hub between rebel centers Donetsk and Lugansk has been the focus of the fiercest fighting for a week as rebels battle to encircle Ukrainian forces.
Officials say thousands of civilians have fled the beleaguered town over recent days and those remaining behind are trapped in basements without water or electricity.
"The bombardment is incessant. We are trying to bring in medication and evacuate civilians under enemy fire," Illya Kiva, an official from Ukraine's interior ministry, told AFP from Debaltseve.
Ukraine's military said rebels had launched a fierce infantry attack towards the town overnight but had been beaten back after a five-hour battle.
Four Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 25 wounded in fighting across the region over the past 24 hours, the army said.
As fighting raged, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will jet into Ukraine on Thursday with hopes growing among Kiev's pro-Western leaders that long-standing demands for the U.S. to supply arms could be met.
President Barack Obama's administration had previously ruled out sending weapons to Ukraine's government but the failure of economic sanctions to force Russia to halt alleged military support for the separatists has prompted a second look at the option.
Washington -- fearful of becoming embroiled in a proxy war with Russia -- has so far provided non-lethal assistance to Ukraine, including flak jackets, medical supplies, radios and night-vision goggles.
Ukraine though is thought to be seeking weapons, including so-called "fire-and-forget" advanced anti-tank missiles, to counter the heavy armor it says Moscow has poured over the border.
"What we need is exactly modern warfare, which we've been lacking all this time," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin told Western journalists in Kiev.
While Kerry is not expected to pledge any arms during his trip, Klimkin said he hoped for "deliverables" from the visit and from another meeting between President Petro Poroshenko and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Munich.
Poroshenko said on Tuesday he had "no doubt" that the U.S. and other NATO allies would eventually agree to start arming Ukraine.
Fears are mounting of a sharp escalation in the violence after truce talks collapsed and rebels announced an ambitious mobilization to start next week aimed at bolstering their forces to 100,000 fighters.
Fighting since April has now claimed over 5,358 lives, including some 220 in just the past three weeks, according to the United Nations.
Ukraine and its Western allies accuse Moscow of sending thousands of regular army troops and weapons to support the rebels.
Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations but the rebels appear to be equipped with the heavy and advanced weaponry of a regular army.
Source: Agence France Presse
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