Deaths mount daily as renewed fighting hits eastern Ukraine

Associated Press

AVDIIVKA, Ukraine

Heavy artillery and rockets hit residential areas in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday amid a new outburst of fighting between government troops and Russia-backed separatist rebels, leaving at least eight people dead and dozens injured.

Salvos of heavy-caliber artillery were heard in Avdiivka, a town on the northern outskirts of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk where residents have been without electricity for days. In Donetsk, at least one civilian was killed by shrapnel.

Fighting around Avdiivka has cut water and power supplies for most of the town and it was left without heating in the dead of winter. Temperatures plunged to 0 degrees.

The warring sides blamed each other for the spike in hostilities, the worst in months. The Ukrainian government was considering evacuating 12,000 residents from Avdiivka, Pavlo Zhebrivsky, head of the administration in charge of the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, said on Facebook.

The U.S. State Department voiced concern about the spike in fighting and on Tuesday reaffirmed Washington’s support for the full implementation of the peace deal.

“To avert a larger humanitarian crisis, we call for an immediate, sustained cease-fire and full and unfettered access for OSCE monitors,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said in a statement, referring to an observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The European Union also has expressed its worry over the renewed fighting and called on both sides to pull back immediately to allow for the urgent repair of critical infrastructure.