Ukraine airport battle intensifies, Russia against peace talks

Russian-backed insurgents today assaulted the remnants of a Ukrainian force hanging onto a ruined airport near the rebels' main stronghold as Moscow poured cold water on the prospect of peace talks.
Blasts of incoming and outgoing artillery echoed all night across Donetsk a once bustling industrial city but now the crucible of one of Europe's worst humanitarian and diplomatic crises since the Cold War.
Rebel city administration member Ivan Prikhodko said two civilians were killed and eight seriously wounded when a shell hit a bus stop on the war-wrecked northwestern edge of town.
"The bus stop itself and a store nearby have been levelled," Prikhodko told AFP by telephone.

The past week's escalation in fighting and effective shredding of a repeatedly violated September truce has been accompanied by claims from Kiev's pro-Western government that 700 new Russian soldiers have deployed across the border into Ukraine's separatist east.
Russia's defence ministry called the charges "absolute nonsense" and once again denied supporting the rebel cause.

The Kremlin accused Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of rejecting a troop withdrawal proposal submitted last week by Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine meanwhile set in motion a previously-approved fourth wave of military call-ups since the start of hostilities in mid-April.
The 50,000 new volunteers and reservists will be mostly deployed in the war zone in stages stretching over three months. The infusion of additional forces reflects Ukraine's increasingly frantic attempt to defend against what it views as Russian "aggression".

The blame game between Moscow and Kiev is being watched by European leaders who hope to see a quick end to a nine-month conflict that has plunged East-West relations into crisis and sparked a damaging sanctions war.
President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said the resumption of what Kiev now says is full-scale war means no peace summit is likely any time soon.
A meeting between Putin and Poroshenko that would also include the leaders of France and Germany "can only happen if it is prepared in a way that guarantees its success," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia's TASS state news agency.

"At the moment, its preparation does not look as likely as it was before Ukraine resumed the hostilities," Peskov said.