STANYTSIA LUHANSKA, Ukraine — The fighting between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces has been flaring for eight years. Daily skirmishes, mostly low-level, had become routine.
But an outbreak of hostilities on Thursday, coming at a particularly perilous moment in the tense standoff between Russia and the West, brought the fear of a larger conflict close to home for this dusty remote town not far from the Russian border.
The Ukrainian military said shells fired by Russian-backed separatists in the morning hit a kindergarten, wounding three teachers but no students, as well as the playground of a high school.
“It was a whistling sound, then an explosion,” said Tatyana Podikay, the director…
