Kremlin-separatist forces try to take Maryinka as fighting breaks out along front line

They also
amassed forces near Krasnohorivka, which flanks Maryinka to the north.

Prime Minister
Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the offensive was ordered directly by the
Kremlin.

“Yesterday,
Russia broke up the meeting of the trilateral contact group, and today Russia
ordered its terrorists to launch a military operation (against Ukraine),”
Yatsenyuk was cited as saying by Interfax-Ukraine.

His comments
came amid fierce battles in the east that had been ongoing since 4
a.m., with reports of heavy weaponry and mounting casualties. Ukrainian news
agency Hromadske.tv cited a volunteer medic, Armen Nikogosyan, as saying
separatist forces used Grad rockets to encircle Ukrainian forces.

In the ensuing
battle, he said at least 25 Ukrainian forces have been wounded so far.
“Krasnohorivka and Maryinka are on fire.

“Vicious
fighting is happening along the entire (450-kilometer) front line. The
separatists are trying to break through. We are praying for our guys,” Yevgeniy
Deidei of the Kyiv 1 Battalion, part of the Ukrainian military, wrote on his
Facebook page.

Ukrainian
checkpoints into occupied territories have been shut down as a result of the
fighting, with local residents saying only large columns of military vehicles
are being allowed in.

Military
spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov confirmed the fighting but described it as a
large-scale provocation rather than a major offensive.

“They’ve
launched an attack on our guys, who are returning fire to hold them off,” he
said.

Throughout the
battle, separatist leaders delighted in what they said was a high casualty
count on the Ukrainian side.

“In Maryinka right now, the Ukrop population continues to decline,” read a statement on former separatist commander Igor Girkin’s Vkontakte page, which is run by his supporters. “Ukrop” is a derogatory term for Ukrainians often used by pro-Russian separatists.

“Fighting has
been going on since 4 a.m. … Locals say the Ukrops are very upset. In hijacked
radio communications, the Ukrainians are saying it’s a very bad situation for
them in Marynka,” the message said, noting that at least 19 separatist fighters had
been killed so far.

Andrey Lysenko,
the military’s spokesman for the combat zone, told the Kyiv Post that no
Ukrainian forces had been killed in the fighting.

The battle “can
be considered an attempted offensive, but it’s not happening on a large portion
of the front, so we can’t talk about a large-scale offensive at this point,” he
said.

“If the attacks
by separatists continue, we will respond appropriately,” he said.

Yatsenyuk called
the attacks “yet another challenge for the international community,” adding
that he hoped world leaders would “respond appropriately to Russia’s
aggression,” Interfax-Ukraine reported.

Staff writer
Alyona Zhuk contributed to this report.