Another ceasefire in Donbass was first disrupted by Kiev at the beginning of the past week, four days after its announcement. By the end of the week, the situation in the DPR dramatically deteriorated.
According to the DPR Defense Ministry, over the past week, the Ukrainian military opened fire on the territory of the Republic over 500 times, and about half of the attacks occurred yesterday.
The local authorities reported that during the week, as a result of the shelling, 10 residential houses were damaged, and seven of them were damaged in the vicinity of Donetsk in one day, yesterday.
Civilians were not affected by the shelling, but one soldier of the DPR army was killed and another seriously wounded.
The most intense attacks were launched on the outskirts of Donetsk city, where the Ukrainian military made numerous attempts to capture the DPR army positions.
The military authorities of the Republic also noted a sharp activation of Ukrainian subversive groups. In the night from Saturday to Sunday, the DPR soldiers repelled two attempts of the Ukrainian saboteurs to break through into the territory of the Republic.
Moreover, as a diversion, the Ukrainian side opened a barrage of mortar fire on Yasinovataya situated to the north of Donetsk. Soldiers of the DPR army on positions reported that, during two hours of the shelling, at least 9- mortar shells came from the Ukrainian side.
Having failed to provoke the DPR to open return fire from weapons prohibited by Minsk, which was to have been recorded by several crews of the leading media sent by Kiev to the front line, the Ukrainian side organized such a report for their journalists.
In this report, the Ukrainian reporters are on positions supposedly under small arms fire by the DPR. However, the shots are clearly outgoing, not incoming, and the Ukrainian military are absolutely calm and are not even trying to take the journalists to a shelter.
However, after Sunday's shelling of the DPR territory by the Ukrainian army, which approached the intensity of bombardments on the eve of the ceasefire, the DPR authorities announced that all further provocations would receive the most decisive response.
In the LPR, the situation was much more calm, except for the shelling of the checkpoint "Stanitsa Luganskaya», situated near the capital of the Republic, by radicals of the «Right Sector» with mortars and infantry fighting vehicles. The fact of the shelling was documented by the OSCE representatives who found mortar shells within 4 meters from the road by which civilians move daily.
In the Lugansk sector of the front, over the past week, there was also an attempt of a Ukrainian subversive group to break through into the buffer zone. Presumably, the attempt aimed at occupying positions for the provocative shelling of the territory of the Republic.
The LPR People's Militia reported that, for such attacks, the Ukrainian military use portable, self-made mortars with extremely low firing accuracy.
Such "modernization" of weapons, along with the mass drunkenness and violation of weapon handling safety, is one of the reasons for the high non-combat losses in the Ukrainian army.
According to the DPR intelligence, non-combat losses of the Ukrainian Army daily amount to 15 men and, over the past week, they accounted for 55 men. In particular, two days ago it was reported that, one of the best scouts of the Ukrainian army hit their own land mine. In addition, during this period, 25 units of Ukrainian military equipment was disabled.
According to official statistics of the ATO headquarters, for the past week, the losses of the Ukrainian army were one soldier killed and 11 wounded. At the same time, the Ukrainian organization "Sisters of Mercy" reported that only one hospital in Kharkov received, in the past week, 35 wounded soldiers.
In addition, it was reported that at the Rovno training ground, during a training on handling grenade launchers by an unprofessional instructor, 10 reservists were injured. Against the background of such information, it is easy to believe the DPR intelligence data that about 10 reservists desert daily from Ukrainian training grounds.
Consequently, the Ukrainian security services tighten measures on identifying "draft dodgers". According to local residents, in Kiev-controlled localities near Donetsk, the SBU conducts regular raids on their identification, with several people having already been detained.
The SBU also continues to detain citizens of the People's Republic. Over the past week, the DPR Commissioner for Human Rights office registered three applications of unlawful detention of citizens by the security forces of Ukraine. One application was received from relatives of a former soldier of the Republic, two other were classified as the detention for political reasons.
Despite the ceasefire, Kiev also continues to deliver to the front line weapons and equipment. According to the DPR intelligence, over the past week, on the Ukrainian side of the contact line, there were detected 7 heavy artillery batteries, including 203mm cannons «Peon», 4 tanks companies and 4 120mm mortars batteries.
In addition, Kiev transported 25 pieces of heavy weapons and equipment from Mariupol to Donetsk, and 40 kilometers away from the front line, there was detected the arrival of a military echelon transporting motorized artillery systems marked the inscription «USA» and a star.
The OSCE mission observers also continue to document the withdrawal of Ukrainian weapons from the storage sites. Over the past week, in the Donetsk and Lugansk segments of the front, there was found the lack of about 150 122 and 152mm artillery pieces, 10 122mm MLRS "Grad", about 20 220mm MLRS "Uragan", 30 100mm anti-tank cannons "Rapira", over 50 tanks, 5 air defense missile systems "Strela-10" and 3 air defense systems «Tunguska".
Moreover, in one of Kiev-controlled localities in the Lugansk segment of the front, over 10 MLRS "Grad" are located near the local school.
Kiev also places ammunition warehouses in the civilian localities, exposing to danger their residents. In one of them, in the Donetsk segment of the front, at the beginning of the past week, a fire broke out, which was put out before the detonation of munitions by miracle.
Following the appointment of retired generals of the US and British Army as advisers to the Defense Minister of Ukraine, the former head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine said that Ukraine ‘intends to share the active combat experience and provide the partners with its vision and experience’.
Due to the fact that Ukraine does not cease to assert its fight against "Russian aggression", you can not help wondering why the US and the UK need a ‘combat experience’ against the "Russian forces", the absence of which in Donbass was again officially confirmed by the OSCE Secretary General two days ago.
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