After a brief interlude in September 2015, Ukraine is once again tearing itself apart.
Disappointingly, Ukraine leader Petro Poroshenko and present leader of the Donesk People's Republic Aklexander Zakharchenko seem unwilling to prevent the nation descending into bloody civil war. Maybe they are just incapable of stopping the bloodshed.
The Minsk agreement signed in September 2014 by France, Germany, Ukraine and the Russian Federation, now looks increasingly under strain. The treaty, which called for an immediate cease fire in hostilities between the Ukraine military and pro-Russian militia in the east of the country, is, it is now being reported, November 2015, at the point of collapse.
Reports filtering out from the east of Ukraine suggest that both factions are still engaged in battle, attacking each other and breaking the conditions of the cease fire.
On November 11, an unnamed Ukranian military officer reported one of his soldiers dead and five wounded after attacks by separatists from the self-styled Donestk People's Republic. Throughout the day a stream of military reports claimed that fighting was taking place across a wide area in the east of the country.
Lines near the separatist-held town of Horlivka, as well as the Luhansk town of Schastye and Shyrokine on the Azov coast were all mentioned in media reports of fighting. Ukrainian marines close to Shyrokine told television broadcasters that tanks had shelled their positions.
Donestk People's Republic militia have simultaneously claimed to have come under attack by the Ukrainian military. Using heavy weaponry the Ukrainian military has been accused of bombarding the western suburbs of Donetsk with Grad rockets.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine have confirmed that there is evidence of Grad attacks on Staromykhaylivka, a separatist held suburb of Donestsk.
While international media coverage of the agonising situation in Ukraine has faded from the front pages and television screens, the fighting goes on, people are still being killed and wounded. Despite efforts to calm tensions and offers from the Ukraine parliament to look at giving the east more autonomy, the separatists are stubbornly holding onto their unrecognised republic.
Since April 2014, 8,000 people have died in this Conflict but tensions remain and the Minsk agreement based on a 12 point plan for cease-fire is looking increasingly fragile. While the world stands by another tragedy is in danger of unfolding in Ukraine.
