Pro-Russian rebels reject peace deal, launch offensive

Pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine on Friday rejected a previously signed peace deal and announced a new multi-pronged offensive against Ukrainian government troops, defying diplomatic efforts to end the spiralling crisis.

The main separatist leader in the Donetsk region said the insurgents won't engage in further ceasefire talks, and another rebel went even further saying they will not abide by a peace deal signed in September.

Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko said rebel fighters launched the new offensive to gain more territory and forestall a Ukrainian attack. He declared they will push the government troops to the border of the Donetsk region and possibly even further.

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"Attempts to talk about a ceasefire will no longer be undertaken by our side," Zakharchenko said.

The peace deal signed in September in the Belarusian capital of Minsk envisaged a ceasefire and a pullout of heavy weapons from a division line in Eastern Ukraine.

Violations by both sides

It has been repeatedly violated by both sides, and there has been a surge in fighting in the last few weeks that swelled the death toll to nearly 5,100 since April, according to the United Nations' human rights agency.

Wednesday's talks between Russian, Ukrainian, French and German foreign ministers in Berlin produced an agreement to uphold a demarcation line defined in a peace deal signed in September in the Belarusian capital, Minsk. Under the deal reached in Berlin, Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed separatists are to pull back their artillery 15 kilometres on either side of the line, although there was no agreement on a withdrawal of troops.

But rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin threw that agreement into doubt, saying the insurgents "will no longer consider the Minsk agreement in the form it was signed," although he added that they will remain open for peace talks.

Basurin's bold statement contradicted the official position of Russia, which has repeatedly pledged respect for the Minsk agreement even though it has been reluctant to meet its end of the deal that also requested the withdrawal of foreign fighters and that the OSCE should be allowed to monitor the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Fight for Donetsk airport

Battles intensified last weekend over Donetsk airport, a gleaming showcase for the Euro 2012 soccer championship that has been reduced to piles of rubble and steel beams by months of clashes. Rebels eventually took control of its terminal, although fighting has continued on its fringes.

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Zakharchenko said rebel fighters were advancing in three directions in the Donetsk region and also pressing their attack in two other areas in the Luhansk region.

"We will hit them until we reach the border of Donetsk region, and ... if I see the danger for Donetsk from any other city, I will destroy this threat there," Zakharchenko said.

A top NATO official confirmed the rebels have pushed further west and have been beefed up with reinforcements. U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove said air defence and electronic warfare equipment have been detected in Eastern Ukraine hardware that, in the past, coincided with the incursion of Russian troops into Ukraine.

A pro-Russian insurgency flared up in April in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Russia insists that it does not support the rebels, but Western military officials say the sheer number of heavy weapons under rebel control belies that claim.

Russia will 'survive any hardship'

At the international economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, a Russian deputy prime minister vowed that Moscow would not be cowed by the sanctions the West has imposed upon Russia for its actions in Ukraine.

Igor Shuvalov warned the West against trying to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, reflecting the Kremlin's view that the European Union and U.S. sanctions are aimed at regime change.

"When a Russian feels any foreign pressure, he will never give up his leader," Shuvalov said Friday. "We will survive any hardship in the country eat less food, use less electricity."

The Russian currency has lost half its value in recent months from the double blow of sanctions and a plunge in world oil prices.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said stern retribution would await anybody violating the peace. After a speech Wednesday at Davos, he rushed home to deal with the escalating fighting.

"If the enemy doesn't want to abide by the ceasefire, if he doesn't want to put an end to the suffering of peaceful people, Ukrainian villages and towns, we will smash them in the teeth," Poroshenko told top defence officials.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki voiced concern about the increasing bloodshed, saying it has resulted from "a surge in Russia-backed separatist attacks against the ceasefire line in what appears to be a general offensive in complete violation of the Minsk agreements."

"Ukraine has implemented ceasefire after ceasefire, but the Russia-backed separatists have responded with violence, carrying out 1,000 attacks since early December, resulting in the deaths of 262 people in the last nine days," she said. She added that Russia continued to supply the rebels with heavy weapons and provide military personnel.

"Russia holds the keys to peacefully resolving a conflict it started, and bears a responsibility to end the violence, which has devastated the lives of so many innocents in Donetsk and Luhansk," she said.