The head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has called for an immediate ceasefire in eastern Ukraine following a rapid deterioration of the situation in the past 24 hours.
Ivica Dačić, who is also Serbia’s foreign minister, said on Saturday that many civilians had been killed and more had been injured.
He called on both sides to end the violence and indiscriminate use of weapons.
“The current conflict cannot be settled through violence but only through dialogue, which must be resumed as soon as possible in order for the suffering of civilians to stop,” Dačić said.
Intense fighting on Friday left more than 20 civilians dead following separate shelling attacks in Donestsk, Debaltseve and other areas.
A rocket from a BM-30 Smerch luckily didn't explode when it hit this apartment in eastern #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/ZjA020838z
— Conflict News (@rConflictNews) January 31, 2015
Rebel delegates have gathered in the Belarusian capital of Minsk for a new attempt to reopen peace talks with Ukrainian and Russian representatives brokered by the OSCE.
The meeting of the so-called contact group was originally planned to take place on Friday but was postponed before it began. It remained unclear whether the talks would take place on Saturday either.
The call comes as 15 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and a further 30 wounded in clashes with Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours.
Stepan Poltorak, Ukraine’s defence minister, said on Saturday that fighting was particularly intense around Debaltseve, a major rail and road junction 35 miles (50km) north-east of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk. Thousands of government troops are partly encircled by separatists in Debaltseve.
The Russian-backed rebels said on Friday they had taken the town of Vuglegirsk - about 10km from Debaltseve - after Russian television showed video of heavy street fighting.
The rebels were also continuing to threaten Mariupol, a city of 500,000 people on the coast of Sea of Azov, Ukraine military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
At least 30 people were killed and more than 90 wounded in Mariupol last Saturday when Grad rockets struck residential areas.
The missiles, apparently fired by pro-Russia rebels, came on the day their leader announced an assault on the city, despite earlier denials from rebel authorities that they were responsible.
OSCE monitors, who visited the scene, said that the missiles had been launched from rebel-held territory.
