Tuesday, 2 August 2016

Ukrainian forces fire more than 200 artillery shells on DPR — agency



It was reported earlier that two civilians were injured overnight to Tuesday in a shelling attack on the western outskirts of Donetsk.

DONETSK, August 2. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces fired 112 artillery shells and 104 mortar shells overnight on the outskirts of Donetsk, Yasinovataya, the Sakhanka and Kominternovo villages of the Novoazovsk district in the south of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), a source in the republic’s security agencies told the Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.

"The Ukrainian forces shelled from 20:00 pm (Monday) to 03:00 am Tuesday the Kuibyshev and Petrovsky districts of Donetsk, the Spartak, Veseloye and Zemlyanki villages in the Yasinovataya district, the environs of the industrial zone near Yasinovataya, as well as the Sakhanka and Kominternovo villages, using heavy weapons and mortars," the source said. "The Ukrainian side fired on these populated localities 27 shells of 152 mm caliber and 85 shells of 122 mm caliber, as well as 104 mortar shells of 82 mm and 120 mm caliber."

According to the source, the enemy opened fire from positions in the areas of Avdeyevka, Vodyanoye, Novoselovka Vtoraya, Pesok, Dzerzhinsk, Shirokino and Talakovka.

It was reported earlier that two civilians were injured overnight to Tuesday in a shelling attack on the western outskirts of Donetsk.

Members of the Contact Group for the settlement of the situation in the east of Ukraine at a meeting in Minsk on April 29 agreed on a complete ceasefire in Donbass starting from midnight on April 30. It is an eighth ceasefire agreement since the autumn of 2014. The sides however continue accusing each other of ceasefire violations.

Kiev’s security forces in the people’s militia responsibility zone have been repeatedly violating the truce, opening fire from mortars and tank weapons, which had to be withdrawn in accordance with the Minsk agreements.

The Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that was signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015, envisaged a ceasefire regime between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) starting from February 15, 2015 and a subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions. On June 17, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Konstantin Yeliseev told a news conference in Kiev that advisors to the leaders of the Normandy Quartet agreed at the meeting in Minsk on June 15-16 to prepare a new summit in the Normandy format (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) on the Ukrainian conflict’s peaceful settlement.
 
Source: ITAR-TASS 02-08-2016