Ukraine, rebels trade shelling accusations; US says Russia wants war 'pretext'

Pro-Russia secessionists in eastern Ukraine have accused the West-backed Ukrainian government forces of launching an artillery barrage on a frontline village, with Moscow raising deep concern over the latest flare-up.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said the shelling targeted Petrivske village in the breakaway region in the wee hours of Friday. Another self-proclaimed republic, Luhansk, also reported two incidents of mortar fire.

“The situation on the line of contact has sharply escalated. The enemy is making attempts to unleash active hostilities," a message posted on its Telegram channel said.

The Interfax report cited a separatist leader as saying that the Ukrainian government forces had opened fire on several of their positions in a bid to escalate the conflict.

He described the shelling as a “large-scale provocation” and said that they had returned the fire.

The development came as Kyiv and the pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine blamed each other for fueling fresh tensions after exchanging artillery and mortar attacks on Thursday.

Ukraine accused the Russian-backed rebels of shelling a kindergarten in the Ukrainian-controlled town of Stanytsia Luhanska, injuring two teachers.

The country's military in a statement posted on social media said the separatists had rained down artillery, mortar rounds and other munitions at its position across the line of control.

On Friday, the Ukrainian joint command center for the eastern front said the rebels had violated the ceasefire 20 times between midnight and 9.00 am while the Donetsk and Lugansk separatist groups said the army had fired 27 times.

Kyiv and the secessionist forces in eastern Ukraine have been at war for eight years. The truce between the warring sides has turned out to be fragile, with intermittent violations, most recently this week.

Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been monitoring the situation in eastern Ukraine, said Thursday that it had counted 591 violations of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, up from 153 the previous day.

The Kremlin said Moscow was alarmed by the situation in eastern Ukraine and that the situation there looked potentially very dangerous.

Russia submits letter to UN on war crimes in Donbass

The escalation came as the office of the UN secretary-general announced that Russia has submitted documents regarding alleged war crimes by the Ukrainian military against civilians in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass.

"The Russian Federation sent a letter to the Secretary-General regarding this issue, and they've asked us to circulate it to the Security Council, which we are doing," said Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, as cited by TASS news agency. "We have no way of verifying this one way or another."

A Russian investigative committee earlier said it had launched a criminal probe into the discovery of mass graves of Donbass civilians killed in shelling.

Russia's lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to urge Putin to recognize the independence of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, together known as Donbas. It came amid warnings to Moscow by Washington and the European Union not to follow through.

SS