LUHANSK, Ukraine — The conflict-wracked eastern Ukraine city of Luhansk, much of which has been without water and electricity for more than a month, had a rare day of jubilation Sunday as rebel fighters paraded military vehicles victoriously through city streets.
In the other regional capital of Donetsk, the city council said Sunday that shelling hit two residential neighborhoods near a government-held airport. Government troops repelled an attack at the airport by about 200 fighters during overnight, and there were no military casualties, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Volodymyr Polyovyi told journalists.
A cease-fire deal, imposed on Sept. 5, has been riddled by violations from the start, and explosions still ring out daily in Donetsk. But in some towns, the decline in fighting has allowed for a return to some kind of normalcy, as shell-shocked residents emerge from the basements where they hid from shelling for weeks and come to grips with the damage incurred by nearly five months of fighting.
Signs of life are gradually returning to Luhansk, which was bombarded by shelling from Ukrainian forces for weeks as they attempted to uproot separatist rebels operating in the city.
Luhansk's population of about 250,000 people, reduced because of the war, emerged to celebrate "city day" on Sunday, which opened on a somber note as priests led hundreds of residents in prayer in commemoration of those killed during a government-mounted siege of the city.
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