The ceasefire is a fiction, a thing of the past. The death toll, estimated at some 5,000 since fighting began last year, is rising again, and violence in eastern Ukraine is at its worst by a distance since the ceasefire was agreed last September.
Over the weekend 30 civilians died in rocket attacks launched from pro-Russian-held areas on the port city of Mariupol. Nine Ukrainian servicemen were killed in fighting on Monday, as rebels fought to encircle a key town straddling transport routes between their two strongholds. Last week Ukrainian forces lost control of the strategically important Donetsk airport while separatists said yesterday they had pushed government troops out of two districts on the outskirts of the city.
The reality on the ground, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, is that more than 900,000 Ukrainians are displaced internally from their homes, and another 600,000 have fled to other countries.
And once again a war of words: Nato officials denounce Russian military engagement with rebels – Lithuanian UN Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite dismisses Russia's denials of aiding the rebels. "How can they afford modern tanks, each of which costs at least $4 million," she asks. "How can hundreds of Russian soldiers be dying on Ukraine's soil if they are not even there?" A blustering President Vladimir Putin denies all, insisting that Ukrainian forces are "a foreign legion – in this particular case NATO's foreign legion".
The escalation in the violence and increased Russian activity has inevitably brought calls within the EU and US for new sanctions against Moscow. It is likely that the EU summit on February 12th will now endorse a new round.
Responding to urgent appeals to help save the country from bankruptcy – economists estimate Ukraine’s funding gap at €15 billion, and it faces about $10 billion in debt servicing this year alone – EU finance ministers on Tuesday meanwhile agreed to lend Kiev some €1.8 billion. Urgent talks are also under way with the IMF to extend its €15 billion aid package.