Fighting around Donetsk intensified over the weekend with heavy shelling on both sides as a series of peace talks planned for Berlin and Astana this week were overshadowed by increasingly combative rhetoric. A gas pipeline caught fire after it was hit by a shell and Ukraine sealed off a number roads into separatist-held areas in response to the fierce fighting.

“Honestly speaking I’m tired of all these

negotiations,” the leader of the self-proclaimed

Donetsk People’s Republic Oleksandr Zakharchenko said.