At 00:00, on September 15, 2016, the People's Republic unilaterally ceased fire in Donbass. The declaration of a «regime of silence» was also confirmed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
The next night, Kiev shelled the locality of Zaytsevo on the northern outskirts of Gorlovka, having launched on the village 9 mortar shells and made 9 rounds from grenade launchers and small arms.
In Zaitsevo, as a result of a direct hit by a mortar shell, a house burned down, and its owner, a 90-year-old woman, was wounded.
In the following days, the number of attacks on the Ukrainian side steadily increased. According to the DPR Defense Ministry, on September 17, Kiev opened fire on the territory of the Republic over 50 times, having launched 13 82mm mortar shells, and yesterday, September 18, the number of attacks reached nearly 100, about half of which were made from mortars.
Moreover, the military authorities of the DPR said reported that, on the night from Saturday to Sunday, Kiev had made an offensive attempt in the Donetsk segment of the front. The army of the Republic was forced to open return fire, and the Ukrainian military had been pushed to their initial positions, having lost 3 men killed and another 2 wounded. In the clash, there was also killed one soldier of the DPR army.
At the same time, unlike the Ukrainian military, the army of the Republic opens return fire on the enemy’s positions, not on civilian targets. In particular, two days ago, in Kiev-controlled Krasnogorovka located in the area of Donetsk, there was destroyed one of the headquarters of the Ukrainian army.
Thus, like in all the previous ceasefires, Kiev, after a sharp decline in the number of attacks, has been steadily increasing their intensity, daily using more deadly weapons.
According to the authorities of the Republic, a week before the «regime of silence» declaration, the Ukrainian side opened fire on the territory of the DPR over 1,500 times, with over 1,000 rounds made from weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements.
The Ukrainian artillery hit 19 cities and towns of the Republic, in 6 of which the shelling caused significant damage. According to the local authorities, over the week, it 73 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including two schools and a kindergarten. There was also damaged a pipeline and power lines, and a power substation was completely destroyed.
At the same time, in the towns of Dokuchaevsk in the south of the DPR, Makeevka and Yasinovataya in the central segment of the front, the Ukrainian military intentionally shelled civilian targets, as the greatest destruction was reported in these towns.
As a result of the shelling, 7 civilians were wounded, including two children born in 2008 and 2013, and 4 soldiers of the DPR army were killed.
All this time Kiev also continued sabotage and intelligence activities. Just over the past week, on the territory of the DPR, there were committed 2 terrorist attacks, and on the front line, 2 Ukrainian subversive groups attempted to pass to the DPR territory, which resulted in two Ukrainian soldiers wounded, and there were made two attempts to break through the positions of the DPR army. As a result, Kiev lost the last 10 men killed, 5 wounded and an armored personnel carrier destroyed. In repelling the Ukrainian attacks, there was killed one soldier of the DPR army.
Yesterday, the DPR intelligence reported that in the Donetsk area, Ukrainian sappers carried out the de-mining of the front line segment in order to ensure the passage of another Ukrainian subversive group. The military authorities of the Republic warned Kiev about their readiness to meet this group.
In order to avoid further death and destruction caused by newly intensifying attacks on the Ukrainian side, the Head of the DPR Alexander Zakharchenko announced yesterday, September 18, that in the case of continued shelling, the order to cease fire would be cancelled on Monday, September 19.
In the LPT the situation on the front line also tends to deteriorate. The first three days after the declaration of the «regime of silence», the People's Militia of the Republic reported the absence of attacks from the Ukrainian positions. However, yesterday the Ukrainian military twice opened fire on the Lugansk segment of the front as well.
At the same time, Kiev continued amassing troops and weapons on the front line. Over the past week, the DPR intelligence reported the arrival at the Ukrainian position of 3 artillery batteries, including one foreign-made, five tank platoons, an infantry fighting vehicle company, an armored personnel carrier platoon, and 3 battalions of the personnel.
The LPR intelligence found the arrival at the Lugansk segment of the front of 4 MLRS «Grad", an anti-aircraft missile system «Tunguska», an anti-tank missile system "Konkurs" and a column of motor vehicles, presumably with the personnel and ammunition.
The OSCE mission observers also documented the withdrawal, from the sites of storage of Ukrainian weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements, of almost 90 152mm artillery systems, about 10 MLRS "Grad", 12 tanks, over 40 100 mm anti-tank cannons "Rapira" and 4 anti-aircraft missile systems «Osa".
The LPR intelligence also reported the arrival of foreign mercenaries at the Ukrainian position. In the town of Novoaydar, to the north-west of Lugansk, came a group of 50 English-speaking mercenaries. The military authorities of the Republic does not exclude their delivery to the front lines to cary out subversive activities.
In the locality of Schastye, to the north of Lugansk, there are stationed military speaking in English and Swedish. According to the local people, they are training Ukrainian snipers.
In the same locality, the SBU tightened the inspection of refugees from the Republics, during which the contents of their phones, tablets and computers is carefully studied. A particular attention is paid to unemployed men who are delivered to the military office for a more thorough check and sometimes disappear after that. It is not excluded that Kiev authorities detain them for a later exchange for captured Ukrainian soldiers.
Such an exchange took place yesterday, for the first time in many months, in the Lugansk segment of the front. Four civilians of Donbass, two of them elderly and in poor health, were exchanged for two employees of the Ukrainian special services, detained for carrying out subversive activities on the territory of the Republics.
The negotiations for this exchange had been held for a long time, and based on the state of health of the liberated elderly prisoners of Ukraine, the DPR Ombudsman made the assumption that Kiev had deliberately dragged out the negotiations to force the Republics to exchange the unwell elderly not for captured soldiers, but employees of the special services of Ukraine.
Kiev has no intention of solving the conflict in Donbass in a peaceful way, recently stating it quite openly.
Martin Saydik, the OSCE representative at the negotiations in Minsk, said that all talks about the transfer of control over the border between the Republics and Russia to Ukraine were groundless until Kiev implemented all the previous points of the Minsk Agreements.
Kiev continues to demand the prior implementation of this point.
Pedro Agramunt, the head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said that Ukraine should hold a dialogue with the leaders of the DPR and LPR and reach an agreement with them on the amnesty law, the special status of Donbass and the necessary constitutional changes.
Pierre Lellouch, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of France, explains that the solution to the conflict in Ukraine does not lie in the extension of the sanctions against Russian or a Western military conflict with Russia, but in the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.
The Ukrainian MPs say that France and Germany have no right to dictate the terms to Ukraine on how to return its territories.
Moreover, Leonid Kuchma, a former President of Ukraine and the representative of Kiev at the negotiations in Minsk, said two days ago that Germany and France, as members of the «Norman format», should take responsibility for the Minsk Agreements failure.
"The main representatives of the «Norman format» are Germany and France. The people who make decisions are responsible for these decisions. If these decisions are not executed to the extent in which they are recorded in the protocol, <...> let them put the blame on themselves, not on the tripartite contact group which is engaged in contacts, not in making any decisions,’ said Kuchma on Ukrainian television.
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