Kiev’s pro-Western leaders and mediators hoped to reach a “binding” truce with pro-Russian separatists on Saturday despite Ukraine suffering one of its bloodiest days yet in the nine-month conflict with 15 troops killed. “In the last day, 15 soldiers died and 30 more were wounded. That is the figure for the whole frontline,” Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak told journalists.
The death toll is the highest one-day loss for Ukraine’s military since the signing in September of a nominal ceasefire deal that has collapsed totally in recent weeks. Representatives from both sides, as well as mediators from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, were to meet in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Saturday for urgent Kremlin-backed talks to agree a new truce. With the civilian death toll mounting in rebel regions Donetsk and lugansk, the truce should also provide for the “unrestricted supply of basic goods and humanitarian assistance”, the OSCE said.
Kiev said it expected to send its envoy, former president leonid Kuchma, to Minsk for the latest talks aimed at defusing fighting that has left at least 5,100 people dead. Meanwhile, Ukrainian PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk said on Saturday that 1,000 residents have been evacuated in the past days from Debaltseve. But the number of crammed civilian vehicles seen speeding out of the town’s rutted, icy roads over the past few days suggests official figures may be on the conservative side.