Ukraine rebels claim near-victory outside key town

DONETSK, Ukraine – Separatist forces in eastern Ukraine said Wednesday they have almost fully encircled government forces in a town that hosts a strategic railway hub, putting them within grasp of a decisive new victory.

Eduard Basurin, the deputy commander of the separatist forces, said the highway linking the town, Debaltseve, to other government-held areas has now fallen into rebel hands. The encirclement of the town has not, however, been fully executed, Basurin said.

Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko confirmed Debaltseve is surrounded on two flanks and is being heavily targeted with Grad multiple rocket launchers. Other officials denied government forces were close to folding and said separatist claims were exaggerated.

Debaltseve is one of multiple flashpoints that have flared up across eastern Ukraine since the start of the month, when full-blown fighting between Russian-backed rebels and government forces erupted anew following a month of relative tranquility. Since the conflict started in April, it has claimed more than 5,100 lives and displaced over 900,000 people across the country, according to Ukraine government estimates.

Advances by separatist forces threaten to definitively torpedo the chances of reviving an internationally brokered peace deal reached in September that established a line of contact between the warring sides. That agreement was signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, by rebel leaders and representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Basurin said the terms of the Minsk agreement are no longer in force.

Roman Turovets, a spokesman for Ukrainian military operations in the east, said fighting is raging all along the more than 190-mile-long perimeter between government and separatist territory.

Rebel offensives appear addressed at consolidating the viability of the would-be breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Ukraine and NATO accuse Russia of lending vast military support to the rebel cause. But few are suggesting Moscow is doing much to prop up the economy of the self-proclaimed republics, and it shows.

Anecdotal evidence suggests unemployment is rife. Tens of thousands have fled the region, most shops in the main separatist city of Donetsk are closed, and the pace of life in the war-stricken areas is a faint echo of peacetime.

Gaining control of key economic assets has become a pressing goal for the rebel command.

Turovets said Deblatseve is important for its role as a transportation hub.

“Deblatseve is a key railway link without which there can be no real connection between the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics,” he said.