KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO’s chief is promising to provide help to Ukraine as it tries to put down an insurgency by pro-Russia rebels in the country’s east.

The show of support today from Anders Fogh Rasmussen (AHN’-derz fohg RAHS’-moo-sihn), during a visit to Kiev, came as government troops push to recapture the rebel-held city of Donetsk (dah-NETSK’). It’s the focus of government efforts to claw back territory from the rebels. In Donetsk today, local officials say sustained shelling hit residential buildings and a hospital, killing at least four people and wounding 10 others.

In a sign of sagging morale among rebel forces, the separatists issued a desperate plea for help today. A statement said there’s a “critical situation” concerning “food, uniform and ammunition supplies.”

Russia has recently been accused of trying to encourage more instability through a show of force — by sending an estimated 20,000 troops to Ukraine’s eastern border. The deployment has led many to speculate that Russia may try an incursion, under the guise of restoring stability to eastern Ukraine.

During his visit to Kiev, Rasmussen warned Russia not to “use peacekeeping as an excuse for war-making.”

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APPHOTO XAZ103: Journalists walk near a crater caused by a shell which damaged a house following fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government forces in Shakhtarsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka) (7 Aug 2014)

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