Fighting in Ukraine hampers recovery efforts

(Vatican Radio) Ukraine's military said Tuesday an operation to recover more bodies from victims of an attacked refugee convoy in the east of country has been suspended due to fierce fighting between government forces and pro-Russian separatists. Officials claim the latest clashes occurred in the city center of Luhansk, near where the convoy was allegedly attacked on Monday.  

Listen to Stefan Bos' report: 

Ukrainian government forces closed off key roads after pro-Russian separatists allegedly attacked the bus convoy carrying refugees, including women and children.

The military said 15 bodies have been removed from the site of an artillery strike outside the rebel stronghold of Luhansk. But further recovery operations were suspended due to renewed fighting in the region.

Separatists have denied involvement and even raised doubts that the attack took place.       

REMAINING DEFIANT

While government forces appeared to make gains in Luhansk, pro-Russian rebels in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk said they were not giving in despite being one of the last remaining separatist strongholds.

Rebels said 1,200 new Russian trained recruits were on their way to help them launch a new counter offensive.

Kiev has accused Russia of supporting the rebels, but Moscow denies the charges.  

The latest fighting prompted Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko to tell his security council that he blames the pro-Russia rebels and their foreign supporters for the continuing violence.

"MERCENARIES, TERRORISTS"

“Since mercenaries and terrorists are temporary people in Luhansk and Donetsk, they have nothing that may connect them to these cities. So the worse the situation is the better it is for them," he said. "I am fully convinced that the blame for the destruction lies solely on rebels and their foreign sponsors.”

More than 2,000 civilians and combatants are now believed to have been killed in clashes since mid-April, when Ukraine's government sent troops to end the rebel uprising in the east.

Separatists in Luhansk and the Donetsk regions declared independence from Kiev. They proclaimed their own people's republics after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in March.

The battle has impacted the world. Malaysia  announced Tuesday that human remains of at least 15 Malaysians and a Dutchman who were on board last month's downed passenger aircraft will be flown from the Netherlands to Kuala Lumpur ahead of national day of mourning Thursday.

The Netherlands is identifying many of the nearly 300 people, most of them Dutch nationals, who died when the Malaysian Airlines plane was shot down over Ukraine, allegedly by pro-Russian rebels.