Peace talks aimed at brokering a ceasefire in Ukraine’s breakaway east stalled before they had even started on Saturday.
Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine’s former president and representative at the talks, blamed the breakdown on the separatist leaders he said had sent lower-level representatives with questionable credentials to sign an agreement.
Meanwhile, fighting claimed the lives of dozens more civilians and combatants in eastern Ukraine, increasing pressure on negotiators representing Kiev, Moscow and the Russian-backed separatists.
As advancing separatist militants boasted they were on the verge of encircling Debaltseve, a strategic railway hub, Ukrainian officials said at least 15 government soldiers and 12 residents of the city were killed by shelling.
“The militants are systematically destroying the Donbas [region] and deepening misery for residents,” Ukraine’s national security council said in a statement.
Fierce artillery, tank and gunfire along the perimeter of separatist and Ukrainian-controlled regions has knocked out utilities in Debaltseve and dozens of other cities.
City officials said shelling had killed eight civilians in the separatist-held town of Horlivka, located west of Debaltseve and nearby Vuhlehirsk, a smaller town that rebel forces claim to have seized.
On Friday, shelling far from the front lines killed at least seven civilians queueing for humanitarian aid in rebel-held Donetsk, the largest city in Ukraine’s war-torn east. Both sides blamed each other.
More than 5,000 people have died since the conflict erupted 10 months ago sparking the most serious east-west stand-off since the cold war.
Though both sides have regularly exchanged fire in defiance of a September ceasefire, hostilities escalated to open warfare in January after separatists captured Donetsk airport and vowed to seize more territory.
By late Saturday afternoon, a representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe arrived with Mr Kuchma in the Belarus capital for talks with Russia’s ambassador to Kiev, Mikhail Zurabov, and separatists.
“There is no justification for anyone for all the peaceful people we see dying for nothing in recent days,” news agency Ria-Novosti quoted Mr Kuchma as saying ahead of the talks.
“With God’s help, let these talks really lead to a final result,” he added.
Rebel leaders say their starting point for negotiations is for Kiev to recognise their control over newly conquered territory.
“The line of contact has changed significantly. We are ready to talk about an immediate ceasefire at the actual line of contact,” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Denis Pushinlin, a separatist negotiator, as saying on Friday.
The planned talks came days after the EU and US threatened to impose deeper economic sanctions upon Russia for its role in the intensified fighting, which they say includes arming and fighting alongside the militants.
The west has hardened its stance against Moscow since last Saturday’s shelling of civilians in the port city of Mariupol, which claimed 31 lives and injured more than 100.
The upsurge of hostilities has also led to increased international diplomatic efforts to forge a ceasefire.
John Kerry, US secretary of state, is scheduled to visit Kiev and possibly Moscow next week before attending the Munich Security Conference from February 6-8.
The Kremlin said Vladimir Putin, Russian president, discussed the escalated violence on Saturday during a phone call with his counterparts from the US, Germany and France.
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