Ukraine announced passport controls around pro-Russian separatist territories Thursday, as heavy artillery fire erupted in rebel-held Donetsk and Russia accused its neighbour of "crudely" violating the cease-fire. Ukraine's border guards service said anyone crossing in or out of rebel areas will now have to present a passport. Foreigners will "be sent to filtration points to determine the purpose of their visit" and will have "to show a passport or the required visa," a statement said.
The rule was explained as a security measure to seal off the separatist region in the east, where artillery fire violated a tattered cease-fire deal on multiple occasions early Thursday. However, the passport regime will create a de facto internal border, underscoring the Russian-backed guerrillas' success in carving out two self-declared statelets centred on Donetsk and Lugansk. Already, Ukraine has lost control of its real border with Russia, which is in the hands of separatist guerrillas and Russian troops.
In another sign that Ukraine's government has given up regaining control of the east anytime soon, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Wednesday that subsidies and social payments, including pensions, would be halted to rebel-controlled areas. The developments in Kiev came against a background of fierce shelling in Donetsk and other incidents that raised fears of a total breakdown in a peace plan signed in September.
The Ukrainian government's Western allies have expressed growing concern over the situation and on Thursday the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said a meeting would take place in 10 days to discuss the future of sanctions imposed on Russia.
"We have to see clearly what is happening on the ground from now until then," she said. Almost non-stop artillery fire rained down around the outskirts of Donetsk, where a shell had killed two teenagers late Wednesday while they were playing football.
Russia's investigative committee said it had opened a criminal case against Ukrainian forces over the incident, while Ukraine's military said a case had been opened against the separatists. A spokesman for the military said that in the latest shelling across the conflict zone three Ukrainian servicemen were killed, as well as nine others wounded earlier. The separatists rarely release casualty figures.
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