By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
DailynewsegyptDailynewsegypt
  • Home
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    blinx: New digital media hub for Middle East’s youth
    blinx: New digital media hub for Middle East’s youth
    September 24, 2023
    ADNOC Distribution launches first ADNOC service stations in Egypt
    ADNOC Distribution launches first ADNOC service stations in Egypt
    September 24, 2023
    Banks’ financial position grows to EGP 13.798trn in 1H 2023, CBE reports
    Banks’ financial position grows to EGP 13.798trn in 1H 2023, CBE reports
    September 24, 2023
    Shell, KUFPEC partner to explore Egypt's Mediterranean Block 3
    Shell, KUFPEC partner to explore Egypt’s Mediterranean Block 3
    September 24, 2023
    Food Export Council holds symposium on challenges of food exports to EU, US
    Food Export Council holds symposium on challenges of food exports to EU, US
    September 24, 2023
  • Politics
    PoliticsShow More
    Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues
    Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues
    September 24, 2023
    Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants
    Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants
    September 24, 2023
    Sudanese leader Al-Burhan denounces RSF commander’s letter to UN
    Sudanese leader Al-Burhan denounces RSF commander’s letter to UN
    September 24, 2023
    Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus stress coordination on gas, regional issues
    Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus stress coordination on gas, regional issues
    September 23, 2023
    CCCPA, African Union train officials on ‘Climate Responsive Programming for Sustaining Peace’
    CCCPA, African Union train officials on ‘Climate Responsive Programming for Sustaining Peace’
    September 22, 2023
  • Interviews
    InterviewsShow More
    Microsoft Egypt aims to provide advanced AI models, build solid AI ecosystem: Mirna Arif
    Microsoft Egypt aims to provide advanced AI models, build solid AI ecosystem: Mirna Arif
    September 18, 2023
    I love privacy, and I am not concerned about competition: Yasmine Sabry
    I love privacy, and I am not concerned about competition: Yasmine Sabry
    September 14, 2023
    Sustainability, digital transformation at the heart of our strategy: Heidelberg Materials Egypt
    Sustainability, digital transformation at the heart of our strategy: Heidelberg Materials Egypt
    September 12, 2023
    India welcomes Egypt's BRICS membership: Boosting trade, investment, and access to strategic commodities
    India welcomes Egypt’s BRICS membership: Boosting trade, investment, and access to strategic commodities
    September 11, 2023
    The box office is not a measure of success: Basma Hassan
    The box office is not a measure of success: Basma
    September 6, 2023
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
Reading: Death toll rises in Ukraine, fresh warnings of civil war
Share
Notification
Latest News
Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues
Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues
Politics Egypt
Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants
Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants
Politics World
blinx: New digital media hub for Middle East’s youth
blinx: New digital media hub for Middle East’s youth
Business
National Cancer Institute, Novartis Egypt host run to raise awareness on World Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Day
National Cancer Institute, Novartis Egypt host run to raise awareness on World Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Day
Culture
ADNOC Distribution launches first ADNOC service stations in Egypt
ADNOC Distribution launches first ADNOC service stations in Egypt
Business
Aa
Aa
DailynewsegyptDailynewsegypt
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Advertise
© 2023 DNE News. All Rights Reserved.
Dailynewsegypt > Blog > Politics > Death toll rises in Ukraine, fresh warnings of civil war
PoliticsWorld

Death toll rises in Ukraine, fresh warnings of civil war

Daily News Egypt
Last updated: 2014/05/06 at 4:09 PM
By Daily News Egypt 7 Min Read
Share
Ukrainian soldiers man a checkpoint near the eastern Ukranian city of Slavyansk on May 6, 2014. (AFP Photo)
SHARE
Ukrainian soldiers man a checkpoint near the eastern Ukranian city of Slavyansk on May 6, 2014.  (AFP Photo)
Ukrainian soldiers man a checkpoint near the eastern Ukranian city of Slavyansk on May 6, 2014.
(AFP Photo)

AFP – The death toll from a military offensive in a flashpoint town in east Ukraine rose to at least 34, officials said Tuesday, amid fresh warnings of civil war and the shutdown of a major airport in the region.

“Chaos and the risk of civil war” are now looming in Ukraine, said French President Francois Hollande, reflecting a frantic European push under way for a diplomatic solution before it is too late.

There are fears that Russian President Vladimir Putin could yet order an invasion into his ex-Soviet neighbour under the guise of a “peacekeeping” mission.

But the US general commanding NATO’s military operations, Philip Breedlove, said Russian special forces the West believes are already deployed covertly “may be able to accomplish his [Putin’s] objectives in eastern Ukraine” without the need to send in troops.

Kiev and its Western backers see Moscow’s main aims as making sure Ukraine’s east holds a planned “referendum” on Sunday calling for autonomy, and sabotaging all possibility of a nationwide presidential election two weeks later.

With those deadlines ticking closer, Ukraine’s authorities on Monday stepped up their offensive to crush rebels holed up in Slavyansk, a flashpoint town of more than 110,000 people that is the epicentre of the insurgency.

“Four of our fighters were killed and 20 were wounded” there in fierce fighting on Monday, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his official Facebook page.

“According to our estimates over 30 terrorists were killed and dozens were wounded,” he said.

In a sign of how well-armed and trained the pro-Russian fighters are, on Monday they shot down a helicopter gunship near the town – their third since the assault on the town began last week.

An AFP reporter inside Slavyansk said fighting had not yet reached the centre of town, but basic foodstuffs and other items were running increasingly short. Locals hostile to Kiev’s government have strewn tree trunks and tyres across the streets to slow any army advance.

Ukraine’s interim president Oleksandr Turchynov, meanwhile, appointed his acting army chief permanently to the post. He has already put his armed forces on combat alert and brought back conscription in preparation for a possible Russian invasion.

He has said that Moscow’s meddling means “war is in effect being waged against us”.

Separately on Tuesday, all flights in and out of Donetsk – a regional industrial hub of more than one million people – were suspended, according to airport authorities, who gave no reason for the action.

Russia, which belatedly owned up to deploying its military to Crimea ahead of that region’s own hastily organised independence referendum, continues to deny its special forces are active in east Ukraine.

Instead it says the insurgency there is a spontaneous rejection of the Ukrainian government that came to power in February, after Kiev street protests forced out the pro-Kremlin president. And it accuses the Ukrainian authorities of “waging war on their own people”.

Russian state media, seen in east Ukraine, constantly refer to the new administration as being run by “fascists” who embrace a Nazi-style ideology.

That propaganda has struck a nerve in the southern port city of Odessa, where dozens of pro-Russian activists died in a horrific fire last Friday started during clashes with pro-Ukrainian militants, some of whom were ultranationalist extremists.

Funerals took place Tuesday for those killed in the violence.

The Nazi evocations will also likely come to the fore on Friday, when Ukraine – like Russia – observes a holiday commemorating the Soviet victory over wartime Germany.

Putin, according to Russian reports, could make a triumphant visit to annexed Crimea on that day, after overseeing a parade of Russian military might on the Red Square in Moscow.

With violence and divisions deepening, the West is pulling out all stops to avert open war.

The United States and the European Union are exerting some sanctions pressure on targeted individuals and firms in Russia.

Washington says they will be expanded to punishment of whole sectors of Russia’s slowing economy if Ukraine’s 25 May presidential election is prevented from taking place.

Moscow has said such a poll would be “absurd” given the spiralling violence.

“There would be chaos and the risk of civil war” if the vote does not take place, the French president said Tuesday in a joint television and radio interview.

“Pressure must be put [on Russia] by all of Europe and by the United States through sanctions,” Hollande told BFMTV and RMC radio.

 

Thirty foreign ministers – including from Russia and Ukraine – were discussing the escalating violence at a Council of Europe meeting in Vienna on Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart were in the Austrian capital, along with Britain’s William Hague.

Hague was to travel later Tuesday to Kiev, where the Ukrainian parliament will discuss the crisis in a closed-door meeting.

“Russia seems to be intent on a course of preventing and disrupting those elections. That is wrong,” Hague told reporters in Vienna.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has also offered to help mediate a solution before the crisis “spins out of control”.

In Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry was to hold talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Didier Burkhalter, was due in Moscow on Wednesday.

Germany is pushing for a second peace conference in Geneva after Russia declared dead an initial agreement aimed at defusing the crisis on 17 April.

Russia warned in a foreign ministry report Monday that the unrest was now “fraught with such destructive consequences for Europe’s peace, stability and democratic development that it is absolutely necessary to prevent it”.

You Might Also Like

Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues

Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants

Sudanese leader Al-Burhan denounces RSF commander’s letter to UN

Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus stress coordination on gas, regional issues

CCCPA, African Union train officials on ‘Climate Responsive Programming for Sustaining Peace’

TAGGED: civil war, Crimea, Daily News, Daily News Egypt, death toll, DNE, Europe, Germany, Moscow, putin, russia, Ukraine
Share this Article
Facebook Twitter Email Print
Previous Article Infrastructure work for Suez Canal Project offered on usufruct basis: SCA chairman
Next Article Israel gas field partners sign LOI on exports to Egypt LNG plants
3 Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Ad image
Ad image

Stay Connected

Facebook Like
Twitter Follow
Instagram Follow
Youtube Subscribe

Latest News

Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues
Egypt, India affirm their strategic partnership, discuss regional issues
Politics Egypt
Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants
Pope Francis denounces ‘invasion’ rhetoric on migrants
Politics World
blinx: New digital media hub for Middle East’s youth
blinx: New digital media hub for Middle East’s youth
Business
National Cancer Institute, Novartis Egypt host run to raise awareness on World Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Day
National Cancer Institute, Novartis Egypt host run to raise awareness on World Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Day
Culture
//
Egypt’s only independent daily newspaper in English. Discuss the country’s latest with the paper’s reporters, editors, and other readers.

Quick Link

  • Home
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Interviews
  • Culture
  • Opinion
  • Sports
  • Lifestyle

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

© 2023 DNE News. All Rights Reserved.

Join Us!

Subscribe to our newsletter and never miss our latest news, podcasts etc..

Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?