21 May 2018 10:44

Kyiv, LPR report ceasefire violations

KYIV/LUHANSK. May 21 (Interfax) - The Ukrainian army has launched five attacks on the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) over the past 24 hours, the LPR militia told Interfax on Monday.

"The Ukrainian army violated the truce five times over the past 24 hours using 120mm mortars, grenade launchers, and small arms," the militia said.

The army attacked the vicinity of Kalynove, Nizhne Lozove, and Kalynivka, the militia said.

"No damage was done. There were neither civilian nor military casualties," it said.

A representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said that the DPR had seen 20 ceasefire violations by the Ukrainian army and one civilian injury.

"The Ukrainian army violated the truce 20 times over the past 24 hours, attacking the vicinity of the following districts and populated localities: Horlivka (Vasylivka, Zaitseve, Ozeryanivka, and the Gagarin Mine compound), Donetsk (Spartak), Yasynuvata (Kruta Balka and Mineralne), Dokuchayevsk, Telmanove (Petrivske), and Bezmenne (Kominternove and Sakhanka)," the representative said.

Four apartment buildings were damaged in Horlivka, and a civilian was injured in Zaitseve, the representative said.

The press center of the Ukrainian Joint Forces said, for its part, that the militia had attacked Ukrainian positions 55 times but inflicted no casualties.

"Intensive hostilities continued in the Svitlodarsk, Horlivka, Donetsk, and Mariupol sectors," the press center said on Facebook.

There was less tension in the Luhansk region. The hostilities were seen mostly on the Svitlodarsk Bulge and in the vicinity of Troitske and Luhanske, it said.

Hostilities continued in the area of Avdiivka, Pisky, Krasnohorivka, and Mariinka in the Donetsk sector. There was fighting near Vodyane and Shyrokyne in the Mariupol sector, the press center said.

It also said that a reconnaissance-and-sabotage team of Ukraine's Donbas 46th Separate Assault Battalion took three militiamen prisoner and killed another in an incursion on Sunday evening.

"The three prisoners and their weapons were handed over to officers of the Ukrainian Security Service attached to the Joint Forces. Investigative procedures are in progress," the press center said.

The incursion was made in the area of DPR-held Holmivskyi, it said.