DPR militia claims Ukrainian army mounts new offensive in Donbas
MOSCOW. Aug 11 (Interfax) - The militia has claimed a Ukrainian army offensive against several populated localities in the Donetsk region under control of the self-proclaimed people's republic.
"The enemy has reinforced its units and mounted an offensive in the areas of Donetsk, Ilovaisk, Shakhtarsk, Snizhne, Krasnyi Luch and Horlivka. Tensions are the highest near these populated localities," a source in the staff of the Donetsk People's Republic militia told Interfax.
The militia claimed they had managed to seize the initiative in some sectors. "The fierce fighting forced the Ukrainian army to move onto the defensive near the towns of Tsentralnyi, Chornukhyne, Horlivka, Kamenka, Ostra Mohila and Yenakiieve; a tank offensive against the town of Orlovo-Ivanivka and a storm of Horlivka and Ilovaisk were deterred," the staff representative said.
In turn, Andriy Lysenko from the information analysis center of the Ukrainian National Defense and Security Council told a press briefing in Kyiv on Monday the Ukrainian army had launched an offensive in four sectors and 26 times engaged in fighting with the militia over the past day.
"In all, in the past 24 hours the ATO forces engaged in exchanges of fire 26 times near the towns of Horlivka, Stepanivka, Amvrosiivka, Heorhiyivka, Novosvetlovka, Krasnyi Luch, Stukalova Balka, Ilyinka, Vesela Tarasivka, Zhovte, Sabovka, Chelyuskinets, Kamyshne, Peski, Makarovo, Miusynsk and the Luhansk airport," Lysenko said.
In his words, the army was on simultaneous offense in four sectors - Donetsk, Luhansk, Alchevsk-Stakhanov and Torez-Snizhne - and the militia "sustained large losses in manpower and hardware."
Lysenko said the militia suffered the biggest losses in the area of Ilovaisk and its suburb Zelene, Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian army focused on the siege of the Donetsk and Horlivka groups of the enemy on August 10, Lysenko said.
