The staccato thud of exploding shells can be heard along the tense lines in Ukraine’s Lugansk area between government forces and rebel-held territory.
On Kyiv’s side of the front, civilian residences and buildings appear to have been caught in the crossfire of Thursday’s bombardment, with debris scattered across the once-peaceful floors.
“They’ve been shooting every now and then for the last two days,” a resident of the border town of Stanytsia Luhanska tells AFP as he stands in the ruins of his home.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that the situation in Eastern Ukraine is worsening.
Since 2014, Russia has backed separatist insurgents in territories controlled by the separatists.
Moscow maintains that it has no plans to invade Ukraine and accuses the West of inciting “hysteria.”
According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, escalation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict into a war would be “catastrophic,” as he said at the opening ceremony of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, which Moscow will not attend this year.
“With a concentration of Russian troops around Ukraine, I am deeply concerned about heightened tensions and increased speculation about a military conflict in Europe,” Guterres said. If that happened, “it would be catastrophic,” he warned. “There is no alternative to diplomacy.”
(With inputs from agencies)
