Unmoved by the mounting death toll in the armed confrontation in Donetsk region Ukraine’s President-elect Petro Poroshenko vowed to quickly crush the rebellion.
Following a bloody battle for control of the Donetsk international airport on Monday, Mr. Poroshenko told Germany’s Bild newspaper that Kiev’s “anti-terrorist operation has finally begun in real earnest.”
Up to 200 anti-government militia and civilians may have died in the fighting in Donetsk, according to revised estimates.
Ukrainian forces recaptured the airport from the self-defence forces, but militants said they were still in control of the airport perimeter.
Hundreds of coal miners marched through Donetsk on Wednesday to demand the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the region. Several coal mines in the region have gone on strike in protest against the Ukrainian assault on the city.
“If they don’t stop the slaughter, miners will take up arms,” a demonstrator told Russian television.
The situation was calm in Donetsk but in Sloviansk, another rebel stronghold in the region, a Ukrainian artillery shell struck a school during classes. Children and staff had a miraculous escape, but elsewhere in Sloviansk more than 10 civilians, including a four-year-old child, were wounded by artillery bombardment of a residential area.
“We will end this terror,” Mr. Poroshenko said. “There is a real war being waged against our country.”
The United States voiced strong support for Kiev’s bloody suppression of pro-Russian protests in the east.
President Barack Obama called Mr. Poroshenko on Tuesday to congratulate him and offer “the full support of the United States as he seeks to unify and move his country forward,” the White House said in a statement.
Mr. Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that Kiev’s use of force in the east “is pushing the situation into deadlock.”
Mr. Ushakov sidestepped a question about Moscow’s reaction to Donetsk’s plea for military help amid reports that Chechnya’s strongman Ramzan Kadyrov had sent war-hardened fighters to eastern Ukraine.
Militia in Donetsk said that they had received “powerful reinforcements” from the neighbouring Luhansk region. Western reporters said they had talked to Chechen militants in Donetsk who admitted they had been sent by Mr. Kadyrov to help the rebels.
Mr Kadyrov has denied sending troops to Ukraine and said any Chechens that might be operating in the region were there in their personal capacity.
Kiev-appointed Mayor of Donetsk said on Wednesday that among the 43 wounded admitted to the city hospitals, eight were Russian nationals from Chechnya, Moscow and Krasnodar region, which borders Ukraine.
