Pentagon, Kremlin trade accusations on Ukraine

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11. Ukraine Says Rocket Attacks Resume as Germany Warns on Sanctions

Ukraine said its troops came under rebel attack with Grad rockets for the first time since March and Germany’s foreign minister warned the situation is deteriorating as a decision looms on extending sanctions against Russia.

The intensity of clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatists has “increased significantly” in the past 24 hours, with one soldier killed and 14 wounded, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, a Ukrainian military spokesman, told reporters in Kiev on Tuesday. Rebels in turn blamed Ukraine for multiple cease-fire violations, including artillery bombardments.

“Unfortunately, in recent days, the situation regressed a little, in the context of an intensification of the conflict, in two or three locations in Ukraine,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters in Belgrade. “The whole process of implementation must speed up significantly as the decision on sanctions is due in a few months.”

The flareup is casting a pall over efforts to end the crisis more than two months after a truce was signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Both sides were required to withdraw heavy weaponry behind buffer zones under the terms of the Minsk deal. The yearlong conflict pitting the government in Kiev against pro-Russian insurgents has killed more than 6,100 people in eastern Ukraine and devastated the country’s economy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-28/ukraine-says-rocket-attacks-resume-as-germany-warns-on-sanctions