Fighting in eastern Ukraine reached the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk on Tuesday as separatists and government troops exchanged rocket fire in neighborhoods on the edge of the city, according to Reuters.
The onslaught against separatist fighters has focused recently on besieging the main rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the smaller but strategically important town of Horlivka, Reuters reported.
After not seeing much fighting other than a rebel attempt in May to seize the city airport, Donetsk has come under shelling in recent weeks, according to Reuters.
City authorities estimate that around 200,000 people in the city of 1 million have left their homes, Reuters reported.The airport is closed, but buses and trains are still running.
Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have been battling the Kiev government since April, according to Reuters. Ukraine and Western countries have accused Moscow of fueling the mutiny with weapons and soldiers, a claim the Russian government has repeatedly denied.
On Monday, security officials announced that government troops had taken over Yasinuvata, a town just north of Donetsk that is the site of an important railway junction, Reuters reported. Security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that victory would enable the army to cut off a key rebel weapons supply route.
Lysenko said Tuesday that 45,000 Russian troops equipped with 160 tanks, more than 1,300 armored vehicles, 192 military airplanes and 134 attack helicopters are at the moment stationed along the border, according to Reuters. NATO's current estimate is that there about 20,000 Russian troops massed just east of Ukraine's border.
Russia escalated its troop presence along the Ukrainian border earlier this year, but then pulled back large numbers of soldiers in May, Reuters reported.
Fighting across eastern Ukraine has forced more than 285,000 people to flee their homes, according to United Nations figures released Tuesday, according to Reuters. The U.N. refugee agency said more than 117,000 have left for other places inside Ukraine, while another 168,000 people have crossed into Russia.
