Ukrainian soldiers killed in Svitlodarsk arc area - Ukrainian General Staff
KYIV. Dec 23 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen were killed when Ukrainian military positions in the Svitlodarsk arc area in Donbas came under fire, Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff spokesman Vladyslav Voloshyn said.
"The situation last night was not quiet either. As of 7:00 a.m., nine instances of shelling were recorded across the zone of the anti-terrorist operation. Six of them targeted our positions in the Svitlodarsk arc area," he told the 112. Ukraine television station on Friday morning.
Nineteen strikes were recorded in the operation area over the past day, with most of them seen in the Svitlodarsk arc district, he said.
"The situation there remains complicated. All in all, 19 instances of shelling were recorded in the zone of the anti-terrorist operation in the past 24-hour period. Most of them occurred in the Svitlodarsk arc area. Yesterday, militants undertook two storming attempts under the cover of mortars, as well as artillery. They stepped up the intensity of strikes at 10:00 p.m. last night as well," Voloshyn said.
Ukrainian soldiers were killed, he said, adding that further details would be provided later.
"Unfortunately, there are losses among the Ukrainian military. The Defense Ministry's spokesman for issues of the anti-terrorist operation will report them a little later. But it has been said that yesterday militants used 152mm artillery against populated locality for the first time in a long period. There were three such strikes - two of them were carried out in the first half of the day, and the populated locality of Myronivsky came under fire in the afternoon," he said.
On Thursday evening, the people's militia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic also accused the Ukrainian side of firing 152mm artillery weapons.
