Armed pro-Russian militants patrol a road near a front line where shelling continues between pro-Russian forces and the Ukrainian army in the village of Olenivka some 30 kms south of Donetsk on the way to Mariupol, Ukraine.PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP / Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Monday after pro-Russian rebels continued to clash with Ukraine troops in several locations including the Donetsk airport.
The U.S. is concerned about renewed fighting in east Ukraine and has no details about the content of a Russian convoy that entered and left Ukraine over the weekend, a State Department official said. Russia still has about 25,000 troops along the border and more than 3,000 soldiers inside the country, according to the Ukrainian government.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied supporting pro-Russian rebels in the war-torn eastern regions, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk Saturday said that Putin seeks to restore the Soviet Union and take the entire country. The conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives and clashes have occurred daily since a truce took effect Sept. 5.
Kerry will meet with Lavrov at a conference on Iraq that will take place in Paris Monday. Artillery attacks on Ukrainian army positions occur in three to five spots per day, Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said at a press conference in Kiev Sunday.
Airport Attack
The Donetsk airport was shelled from east and south on Saturday in two rebel attacks that were repelled, and troops were also shelled in the Luhansk region, a military spokesman said Sunday. In Donetsk, artillery fire occurred in two of the city's districts just before midday Sunday, according to the city council.
In addition, militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic were using guns and mortar to try to break through Ukrainian troop lines near Panteleymonivka north of Donetsk, the Ukrainian military said. Three Ukrainian border soldiers were wounded near the southern city of Mariupol when they were returning from patrol duty in a car, the Ukrainian state border service said yesterday
The U.S. on Sept. 12 expanded sanctions against Russia to Include OAO Sberbank, the country's largest bank, because of the fighting in eastern Ukraine. The European Union added 15 companies, including Gazprom Neft, OAO Rosneft and Transneft, and 24 people to its own list of those affected by its restrictions.
Soviet Union
"Putin cannot cope with the idea that Ukraine will be part of the European family," Yatsenyuk said at a conference in Kiev Saturday. "He wants to restore the Soviet Union."
"His goal is to take the entire Ukraine," Yatsenyuk told the Yalta European Strategy Annual Meeting. "Russia is a threat to the global order and to the security of the whole of Europe."
The second Russian convoy of 220 trucks entered and left Ukraine over the weekend, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said. All vehicles crossed into Ukraine without being inspected by Ukrainian border guards, customs officers or the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to the OSCE. The OSCE cited Russian officials as saying the convoy carried only food products.