Fighting rages in eastern Ukraine

PRAGUE – News reports said at least one person was killed when a shell hit a bus station early on February 11 in the center of Donetsk, one of two rebel-held provincial capitals. The Reuters news agency said the body of a man could be seen behind the wheel of a minibus after a shell fell through the roof of the station, burning the vehicle and another beside it. Emergency services at the scene said another person had died in the hospital following the attack, and the rebels said at least five people were killed. Ukrainian military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov told a briefing on February 11 that 17 armed forces servicemen and two Internal Affairs Ministry troops had been killed in shelling, rocket attacks and clashes with rebel forces near Debaltseve, a government-held pocket astride a junction between Donetsk and Luhansk. He said 78 others had been wounded. Rebels have been trying to drive government troops from Debaltseve for at least a month in an effort to gain more ground, and on February 10 they said they had completely encircled the town. Also on February 10, a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, deep within government-held territory killed 16 people, many of them civilians, and wounded 48 others, according to Ukrainian officials. Rebels denied responsibility for the attack on the city of Kramatorsk, where rockets hit Ukraine’s military headquarters for the Anti-Terrorist Operation. President Petro Poroshenko made an impromptu visit to eastern Ukraine early on February 11 and stopped in Kramatorsk, according to a statement on his website. “We demand an unconditional peace,” Mr. Poroshenko said in the statement. “We demand a ceasefire, a withdrawal of all foreign troops and closing of the border.” Later, in comments carried by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Mr. Poroshenko said he was “ready to impose martial law across the country if we are not able to reach an agreement today in Minsk.” (RFE/RL, with reporting by Reuters, Interfax and UNIAN)