Pro-Russian Rebels "Encircle" Government Forces

(Vatican Radio) Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine say they have "almost fully encircled" government forces in a strategic town as part of a major offensive amid a rising death toll. The fighting that Russian sources say killed at least 20 civilians since Wednesday, also prompted medical staff to flee front line hospitals, leaving injured patients to fend for themselves.

Listen to this report by Stefan Bos 

Pro-Russian rebels said the highway linking the key town of Debaltseve has now fallen into their hands as part of attempts to surround Ukrainian government troops. 

Ukraine's military tried to playdown the separatists latest claims, but it acknowledged its forces were encircled on two flanks while being heavily targeted with multiple rocket launchers. 

 

Debaltseve is seen as a key hub and railway link without which there can be no real connection between the nearby rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.      

 

HUMAN SUFFERING

The clashes have also added to human suffering in the troubled region. Russian media quoted local officials as saying that Ukrainian forces killed 16 people in Luhansk and four in Donetsk since Wednesday. 

Observers say the rebel offensive appears aimed at making the self-declared Luhansk and Donetsk republics more viable by gaining control over key economic assets. 

That's why battles also rage north Luhansk city where government forces struggle to hold back rebel progress near a large power and heating plant. The biggest prize would be Mariupol, a port city with a major and lucrative metal work plant, where ongoing rocket attacks last weekend killed as many as 30 people and injured dozens.

The intensified fighting has made it more difficult for aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, to provide medical supplies to patients in the war torn areas, explained representative Andreas Koutepas. 

"A lot of medical staff has left the hospitals because of insecurity. Hospitals are under coming attack, which is totally unacceptable for us MSF. Yesterday a hospital...was hit by a shell. One of the medical personnel died," he told BBC television. 

He fears the situation will not improve soon in a conflict that has already killed more than 5,100 people. An advance by rebel forces also threatens to definitely torpedo changes of reviving international peace talks. 

The West has accused Russia of backing the rebels with weapons and troops in Ukraine and condemned its earlier annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Moscow denies wrongdoing. The Russian delegation has resumed its boycott of the Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, the oldest Europe-wide political body for human rights, to protest Western sanctions over Russia's involvement in Ukraine.  

Moscow is also furious that the Council and the United States have demanded the release of Ukrainian air force pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who is on a hunger strike in a Russian prison since December 13.

She allegedly killed two Russian journalists, charges the woman denies.