UKRAINE'S richest man has pleaded with the government not to bomb Donetsk, a city of a million people where hundreds of heavily armed pro-Russian rebels have vowed to make a stand after losing control of their bastion in the town of Slaviansk.
The Kiev government has said it will act quickly to seize back more territory from rebels after re-taking Slaviansk in what President Petro Poroshenko called a turning point in the three-month conflict against pro-Russian fighters in the east.
Rebels retreating from Slaviansk, some driving armoured vehicles flying Russian flags, poured into Donetsk, 65 miles to the north over the weekend before 1,000 of them held a rally in the central square.
Their commander, a Muscovite using the name Igor Strelkov, said his men would fight for the city, which was "much easier to defend than little Slaviansk".
Businesses have closed down and thousands of residents are believed to have fled Donetsk.
The city is the headquarters for Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest man by far, whose fortune, founded on coal and steel, is put at more than £8 billion by Forbes.
He said government forces should show restraint in Donetsk and the surrounding Donbass region.
Mr Akhmetov added: "Donetsk must not be bombed. Donbass must not be bombed. Cities, towns and infrastructure must not be destroyed. We must avoid suffering and deaths of peaceful people."
The Defence Ministry said separatists had launched 10 attacks on government posts and army positions in the previous 24 hours.
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