(Bloomberg) Ukraine said cease-fire violations in its easternmost regions surged to a record as Germany’s leader called for emergency peace talks and Russia stepped up economic pressure on its cash-strapped neighbor.
Government forces faced at least 129 separatist attacks in the past day, the military said as a battle raged at Donetsk airport and the security council warned the unrest may spark a “continental war.” The pro-Russian rebels said Ukraine is preparing to resume full-scale hostilities. Chancellor Angela Merkel urged a meeting in the Belarusian capital to set a demarcation line between the two sides. […]
“The separatist side and the people they talk to want to show they can still have the upper hand on the battlefield,” Arkady Moshes, head of the EU’s Eastern Neighborhood and Russia research program at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, said by phone. “Every time they have the upper hand on the battlefield, the West is more willing to negotiate.”
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