Interfax: DPR claims 30 truce violations by Ukrainian army, says large calibers being used
DONETSK. Aug 26 (Interfax) – The Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has observed 30 incidents of shelling from the Ukrainian side over the past day, a ministry representative said on Wednesday.
“The Ukrainian army has committed 30 ceasefire violations over the past day. Some 113 82mm and 120mm mines, 85 152mm artillery shells and 15 tank projectiles were fired on the territory of the republic,” the Donetsk news agency has cited him as saying.
Donetsk (the Petrovskyi district and the airport terminal), Telmanove, Zhabycheve, Vasylivka, Oktyabrskyi, Nova Marivka, Bila Kamyanka, Spartak and Zaichenko came under attack.
The DPR Defense Ministry reported fire from Pisky, Vodyane, Starohnativka, Opytne, Hranitne, Avdiivka, Kominternove and Novoselivka.
Eduard Basurin, senior official of the DPR Defense Ministry, said DPR intelligence continued to observe the movement of Ukrainian troops and weapons towards the contact line.
“A group of up to 4,000 hostiles, including two armor battalions with up to 60 tanks, has arrived in Chasiv Yar, and howitzers, D-30 guns and Grad rocket launchers have been moved to Verkhnotoretske. Six armored personnel carriers, five infantry combat vehicles and five tank trucks came from Zhelanne to Novoselivka-1, while Buk M1 air defense systems were deployed to Mykolaivka,” he said.
Artillery of the 72nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was seen moving three to five kilometers away from the contact line two days ago, Basurin said. The brigade is armed with weapons outlawed by the Minsk agreements, namely 152mm howitzers and 120mm mortars.
“Already last night intense fire conducted from those positions hit the Donetsk Petrovskyi district, Novalaspa and Bila Kamyanka. Luckily, civilian casualties were avoided. Several homes were destroyed,” he said.
In turn, the Ukrainian army operation press center alleged on Wednesday that 92 attacks of the militia on Ukrainian army positions, including nine by use of artillery, 37 by use of mortars and 19 by use of grenade launchers.
The militia fired 120mm mortars on a Ukrainian stronghold in Pisky and twice attacked Opytne, while army positions in Avdiivka came under attack from 122mm artillery, the press center wrote on Facebook.
The militia’s 152mm artillery and grenade launchers shelled Ukrainian defense lines in Troitske and 122mm artillery attacked Maryinka at about 9 p.m., it said, adding that artillery hit army positions in Druha Novoselivka in the evening. The militia’s armored personnel carriers attacked army positions in Opytne and Krasnohorivka at about midnight.
The Ukrainian army observed three attacks on its positions by the militia’s mortars in Starohnativka at around 7 p.m. and a clash near Novotroitske at 7:50 p.m.
Stanytsia Luhanska found itself in the epicenter of the confrontations in the Luhansk region in the evening. Ukrainian positions came under several attacks from the militia’s grenade launchers, mortars and large-caliber machine guns.
The Luhansk region military-civilian administration said that a low-pressure gas pipeline and a power line were damaged in the shelling of Stanytsia Luhanska.
The gas pipeline was repaired by the morning, the administration wrote on Facebook.