Pro-Russian gunmen patrol in the Kuybeshevski area in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine
AFP/Donetsk
Six Ukrainian soldiers were killed by pro-Russian rebels, officials said Saturday on the eve of separatist elections that Ukraine and its Western backers say will undermine an increasingly hollow truce accord.
Losses in the last 24 hours "as a result of fighting were six servicemen killed and 10 wounded," Volodymyr Polyovy, spokesman for the National Security and Defence Council, said.
Polyovy said the deaths showed that separatist forces "continue to violate the ceasefire agreement" signed September 5.
One of the main attacks took place at the ruins of Donetsk airport, which remains partly in Ukrainian hands, despite lying in territory mostly controled by the separatists, officials said.
Explosions were audible from central Donetsk most of the night, apparently from artillery targeting the airport.
Mid-morning Saturday, explosions could be heard about every five seconds, accompanied by the sound of machine-guns, AFP correspondents in Donetsk said.
There was also heavy rebel shelling of Krymske, a village near Lugansk, another major separatist town, the regional governor said.
Rebel election
The bombardments formed a frightening backdrop to elections on Sunday in the self-declared, pro-Russian statelets known as the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic.
There were no signs of polling stations in Donetsk near the airport and rebel soldiers deployed there said they didn't know of any stations in the area. However, there was little doubt about the winners of the two polls, with separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko on course to become head of the Donetsk republic and Igor Plotnitsky in Lugansk.
Separatist authorities, who have close links with their Russian counterparts, say three million ballots have been printed and that voting by Internet has already started. There's even an exit poll planned for late Sunday.
"These elections are important because they will give legitimacy to our power and give us more distance from Kiev," said Roman Lyagin, election commission chief of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Vera, 45, who was selling eggs in a small Donetsk market, said she would vote "against the Fascists" -- an insult against Ukraine's pro-Western government that has become widespread in the separatist regions and in Russia's powerful state media machine.
However, retired teacher Lyubov Georgiyevna, 75, said "I won't vote. It won't change anything." She said above all she wished she could sleep at night without the sound of explosions.
Question of legitimacy
Russia says it will recognise the legitimacy of the separatist elections, infuriating Ukraine and Western countries who describe the votes as another blow to the already teetering ceasefire.
The latest UN figures show 4,035 people have been killed in about seven months of war -- more than 300 of them in the last 10 days.
The White House on Friday said: "We deplore the intent of separatists in parts of eastern Ukraine to hold illegitimate so-called local 'elections' on Sunday." The European Union and the NATO military alliance have also condemned the polls.
In a four-way call earlier on Friday, the leaders of Ukraine, Germany and France urged Russian President Vladimir Putin not to recognise the polls.
Ukraine's national security service, the SBU, issued a warning late Friday of the risk of "provocations" during the separatist votes.
"The process of voting itself and of taking part in these elections is dangerous," the SBU official, Markiyan Lubkivsky, said. "Serious provocations are being prepared that can then be blamed on the Ukrainian authorities."
There was one bit of good news out of Ukraine this week with Thursday's signing by Ukraine, Russia and the European Union of a deal guaranteeing Russian gas sales to Ukraine over the winter.
