East Ukrainians stage rare rally against rebel command

Several hundred Ukrainians in the country's war-torn east demanded that pro-Russian insurgents remove scores of rocket launchers from crowded city neighbourhoods and stop provoking return government fire on their homes.
The small but unusual demonstration outside the offices of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic suggested that an undercurrent of resentment with the new authorities was running through the streets of eastern Ukraine's main rebel-held town.
Districts around Donetsk and Lugansk -- capital of a neighbouring separatist region -- have witnessed the return of intense fighting that has claimed more than 50 lives this month.
That upsurge followed more than three months of relative calm that came in the wake of a truce agreement brokered in the Belarussian capital Minsk with the direct involvement of the leaders of Germany and France.

Donetsk residents from a neighbourhood near one of the city's main hotspots -- an airport the insurgents managed to seize after months of some of the war's heaviest clashes in January -- accused the insurgents of using them as human shields.
"You are hiding behind our backs," some residents chanted. Others simply shouted "Shame!"

"It has been impossible to live in these conditions for the past year," said a young woman who wanted to be identified only as Lena for fear of retribution from the insurgents.
"We have hardly been able to leave our basements for the past two weeks," said fellow demonstrator Irina. "They have left us to our fates."

The event received no mention on the Donetsk insurgents' official news site. They have previously described videos showing rockets being launched from children's play lots and apartment courtyards as fake.
Donetsk separatist chief Alexander Zakharchenko blamed the latest violence Monday on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Western-backed government against which the separatists rebelled in March 2014.
"Ukraine does not need Minsk. It is doing everything to undermine that agreement," Zakharchenko told the militants' official news site.
"We are standing on the verge of all-out war," his deputy Denis Pushilin warned.