Since ditching their ceasefire at the start of the week, Ukraine’s military is back to launching massive military offensives against eastern regions, and reported 13 soldiers were killed today in the fighting.
Fighting, as usual, centered around the city of Slovyansk, and the military claimed to have seized one nearby town, though the city itself remains completely out of their control.
Though the military is nowhere near retaking the capital of the rebellion, Donetsk, the city’s outskirts did come under fire from military shelling, damaging key portions of their drinking water system and forcing the city to limit reliable water supplies across the city to five hours a day.
The Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have been effectively out of government control for months now, with rebellions erupting after the ouster of the previous government.
"Ditching"? Unless I have seriously misread Mr Ditz's aerlier articles, he claimed during the ceasefire that no ceasefire really existed because some of the rebel groups refused to accept it. You can't "ditch" a ceasefire that the other side refuses to accept. Re the last sentence, my friend in Kharkov told me yesterday that they have been very busy in the school where she works because they've had to organise end-of-year exams for schoolchildren from Donetsk and Lugnask in areas where the rebels have prevented the exams taking place. That makes a lot parents who are going to be hopping mad at the rebels, who've already prevented people from going about their jobs!
Slovyansk has fallen.