Pro-Russian rebels have launched new attacks against Ukrainian government positions, the Kiev army said, as Western countries threatened more sanctions against Moscow for backing a new separatist offensive.
Recent days have seen the worst fighting in eastern Ukraine since a September ceasefire, restarting a war that has already killed more than 5,000 people.
Rebels have announced an offensive and launched an assault on Saturday on Mariupol, a major port of 500,000 people, where Kiev said thirty civilians were killed by shelling.
Kiev officials said the offensive continued on Sunday along other areas in the front, which winds through two eastern provinces partially controlled by the separatists.
"Rebels are attacking the positions of anti-terrorist operation troops extremely intensively, using artillery, mortars, grenade launchers, tanks," military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said in a televised briefing.
He said four Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and 17 injured in the past 24 hours and reported that rebel attacks on the town of Debaltseve, northeast of separatist-held Donetsk, had been particularly fierce.
"Because of constant shelling in the past few days, there are dead and injured among local residents. Around 60 homes have been destroyed or damaged," he said without giving a figure for the number of casualties.
Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko said on Saturday the separatists planned to encircle Debaltseve, which has a population of around 26,000.
Western countries say the rebels, who are fighting for the independence of territory they call "New Russia", have launched their offensive with the direct military support of Russian troops on the ground. Moscow denies it is involved.
Following an emergency meeting, Ukraine's national security council said it would adopt a series of measures to counter "the Russian threat and manifestations of terrorism supported by Russia," it said in a statement.
Last week Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russia had 9,000 troops stationed in his country.
On Sunday he said de-escalating the conflict was the priority for the Kiev government and reaffirmed his commitment to the September peace deal signed in the Belarussian capital Minsk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article