Ukraine monitors fired upon

Security group caught in crossfire after talk with rebels

Fighters from the Azov volunteer battalion arrive on rotation from the front line in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. Shelling killed six people and wounded 15 others in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, the city council said Monday — the worst reported violence since a cease-fire between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops took effect on Sept. 5. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)
Fighters from the Azov volunteer battalion arrive on rotation from the front line in Kiev, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. Shelling killed six people and wounded 15 others in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk, the city council said Monday — the worst reported violence since a cease-fire between Russian-backed rebels and Ukrainian troops took effect on Sept. 5. (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov)

DONETSK, Ukraine -- Six international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe came under artillery fire Sunday and were pinned down for three hours in a village south of Donetsk, a spokesman said Monday.

None of the monitors was injured, but their two armored vehicles were damaged by artillery strikes, and one had to be abandoned.

"It's the first time we have taken live fire in six months," said Michael Bociurkiw, a spokesman for the mission in Ukraine. "We need a secure environment in order to work."

Leaders of the mission met with the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, on Monday morning.

As part of a cease-fire agreement signed earlier this month, the Ukrainian government submitted a draft law to parliament Monday that would grant "special status" to the breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions for three years.

The main points include amnesty for those who participated in the "events" in those regions, the right to use Russian as an official language, the election of local councils, funds for social and economic development, and the right to form local police forces.

More than 600 miles west of Donetsk, not far from the Ukrainian city of Lviv, forces from 15 nations participated Monday in U.S.-led military exercises. The U.S. was expected to send about 200 troops.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitors, who are unarmed, are tasked with gathering information on the security in the region. The organization helped mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine that led to the Sept. 5 cease-fire and the still hazy outlines of a political solution.

The monitors were in the village of Debaltseve, 18 miles south of the regional capital, Donetsk. The area is a crossover point between Ukrainian and rebel front lines.

After meeting with the organization's representatives, Zakharchenko said the monitors had driven into a front-line area without warning and ran into an exchange of fire between the two sides.

"The place they were driving was in the middle of the front line," he said. "The Ukrainians fired, and we retaliated.

"We let them know in order for such problems not to occur, they need to inform us about their route," he added.

While large-scale fighting between Ukrainian forces and rebel fighters, backed by Russian soldiers and artillery, have ended, both sides frequently breach the cease-fire.

On Sunday, shelling killed six people and wounded 15 others in Donetsk, the City Council said Monday, in the worst reported violence since the cease-fire began.

Fighting around the city's government-held airport has left its northern neighborhoods in the crossfire. Two northern neighborhoods were shelled heavily Sunday, the City Council said.

Loud blasts could be heard from the direction of the airport Monday, and gunfire intermittently rang out downtown in the afternoon.

The Ukrainian government blamed the militants for the civilian casualties.

"Neither today, nor yesterday, nor in the previous days did Ukrainian forces shell any residential areas," said Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.

Both the sides have said they are rearming in case the fighting starts anew.

Ukraine and the West repeatedly have contended that Russia is fueling the separatist uprising with manpower, weapons and expertise, something that Moscow denies.

In an interview Monday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said "around 1,000" Russian soldiers remain in Ukraine.

"While the Russians may have withdrawn some of their troops in Ukraine, there is a still Russian military presence within Ukraine," Rasmussen said, adding that several thousand Russian soldiers were also along the border with Ukraine.

The cease-fire deal has brought some benefits. Another 73 Ukrainian soldiers were freed Sunday in exchange for 73 rebels -- the largest prisoner exchange so far, both sides reported Monday.

Information for this article was contributed by Carlotta Gall and Neil MacFarquhar of The New York Times and by Laura Mills, Peter Leonard, John-Thor Dahlburg and Nataliya Vasilyeva of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/16/2014

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