Under siege, Pro-Russia separatists call for truce in Ukraine
http://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-ukraine-donetsk-fighting-20140809-story.html
A Ukrainian government supporter with a national flag at a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in formerly separatist-held Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine.
Under siege, Pro-Russia separatists call for truce in Ukraine
By Isabel Gorst, Carol J. Williams
8.9.2014
Embattled Ukrainian separatists called for a truce Saturday after government troops surrounded their main stronghold of Donetsk, and a reported attempt by Russia to send in an armored aid convoy spurred warnings from Kiev, Britain and the United States.
The military-escorted convoy said to be carrying humanitarian assistance for the Russian-speaking inhabitants of Donetsk and Luhansk, the rebels other besieged redoubt, would be unjustified and illegal without the consent of the Ukrainian government in Kiev, a statement from British Prime Minister David Camerons office warned Moscow.he battle for their control culminates.
President Obama discussed with Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel the sharpening tension in the separatist-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine The high-level diplomacy signaled that the international community is increasingly wary of Russian leaders insistence that a relief effort be mounted to help civilians trapped in the two cities as the battle for their control culminates.
Alexander Zakharchenko, who on Thursday took over as prime minister of the separatists self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk, said that civilians had been killed and injured in overnight shelling by Ukrainian government troops and that the toll would rise dramatically if the assault was not halted.