Ukrainian forces pressed on with their assault on pro-Russian insurgents after Kiev’s Western-backed leader brushed off European efforts to save a tenuous truce, prompting Russia to raise alarm over the “swiftly deteriorating” situation.
The return of all-out fighting in Europe’s worst security crisis in nearly two decades set off a new international scramble to regain some control over events in the strategic ex-Soviet state.
A diplomatic source said the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Russia would discuss the latest escalation with their Ukrainian counterpart on Wednesday in Berlin.
In opting not to extend the 10-day truce, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had said the ceasefire was used by the separatists in restive eastern Ukraine to regroup and stock up on heavy arms from Russia.
“Peace has been and will remain my main goal. Only the means to achieve it have changed,” the 48-year-old leader said.
Ukrainian defence ministry spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky said a “massive artillery and air offensive” had been unleashed in the eastern rustbelt home to seven million mostly Russian speakers who view the new Kiev leaders with mistrust.
Russia immediately expressed its “deep regret” about abandoning the truce, while France’s foreign minister vowed there would be no let-up in Western efforts to find a lasting solution to nearly three months of clashes that have claimed more than 450 lives.
Putin said Poroshenko was assuming responsibility for future casualties and gathered his top security aides to discuss the “swiftly deteriorating” situation in his western neighbour.
US Secretary of State John Kerry in a call to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov Tuesday made clear that the US and its European partners “will continue to press Russia to end all support and weapons flowing to separatists,” and do more to police the porous border, a State Department spokesman said in a statement.
The Kremlin denies the charges of arming the pro-Russian rebels but still faces the threat of devastating Western sanctions against Russia’s financial and energy sectors should Putin fail to demonstrate a clear desire to resolve the conflict.
