Ukraine, Russian-backed rebels blame each other for ceasefire violations

• Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed rebels escalating tensions amid fears of a Russian invasion.
• Kyiv and the rebels blamed each other for the escalation.
• Several incidents of mortar fire on Friday morning, says rebel group Luhansk.
  

MOSCOW: Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed rebels in the country's east traded fresh accusations of shelling and other ceasefire violations on Friday, escalating tensions amid fears of a Russian invasion.

Kyiv and the rebels blamed each other for the escalation after artillery and mortar attacks on Thursday, prompting fears that Russia, which has massed over 100,000 troops near Ukrane's borders, could get involved. 

The Kremlin said on Thursday it was "deeply concerned" with the flare-up in Ukraine and was watching the situation closely. The United States said Russia was looking for a pretext for war after its demands that Ukraine drop its bid to join the NATO military alliance were rebuffed.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported that the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said the shelling targeted the Petrivske village in the breakaway region at 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT).

Another self-proclaimed rebel republic, Luhansk, reported several incidents of mortar fire on Friday morning.

The Kyiv government said the rebels fired artillery or mortars four times on Friday. Separately, the Ukrainian military said late on Thursday that they had no plans to launch an offensive on the rebels' positions.

Kyiv and the pro-Russian separatists have been at war for eight years and the ceasefire between the sides is routinely violated, but the intensity of fighting increased notably this week.

Russia's lower house of parliament voted this week to ask President Vladimir Putin to recognise the two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent, while the European Union told Moscow not to follow through. 

60 ceasefire violations

The Ukrainian military has recorded 60 ceasefire violations by pro-Russian separatists over the past 24 hours, it said on Friday, with one soldier injured.

Incidents of shelling across the line dividing government forces and separatists increased sharply on Thursday in what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called a "big provocation".

In a report, the military said separatists opened fire on more than 10 settlements, using heavy artillery, mortars and a tank.

Russia says video shows tanks, military equipment leaving Crimea

Russia's defence ministry published a video on Wednesday that it said showed a column of tanks and military vehicles leaving annexed Crimea across a railway bridge after drills, adding that some troops would also return to their permanent bases.

Moscow announced a partial pullback of forces from near Ukraine on Tuesday. The move was met with scepticism, however, and U.S. President Joe Biden said that more than 150,000 Russian troops were still amassed near Ukraine's borders. 

World powers are engaged in one of the deepest crises in East-West relations for decades, jostling over post-Cold War influence and energy supplies as Moscow wants to stop the former Soviet neighbour from ever joining the NATO military alliance.

On Wednesday morning, video footage showed what the defence ministry said were tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and self-propelled artillery units leaving the Crimean peninsula that Moscow seized from Kyiv in 2014.

"Combat equipment and military personnel will be delivered by military trains to the units' permanent deployment points," the defence ministry said. "Upon arrival, the equipment will be serviced and prepared to carry out the next phase of combat training."

The video, published by the RIA news agency, showed dozens of military vehicles crossing the bridge at night.

The military cited the TASS news agency as saying a separate convoy of service vehicles drove across a different bridge.