On December 24, 2016, in Donbass, there was declared another ceasefire, a complete and indefinite, in honor of the New Year and Christmas holidays.
However, the Ukrainian side continued shelling Donbass, with from 100 to 200 daily bombardments, and in the mid-week the number of attacks increased dramatically, reaching about 500 bombardments per day. At the same time, Kiev announced an increase in provocations on the part of the DPR.
Journalists made a documentary film «The Ceasefire», in which there is not a single word of comments and that shows the «ceasefire» both at the DPR army positions, and in the capital of the Republic. ( «The Ceasefire, Part 1», «The Ceasefire, Part 2»).
In addition, in the mid-week, Kiev made another attempt to break through the DPR defense. Approaching the positions of the Republican army, a Ukrainian subversive group, consisting of up to 10 men, strayed on their minefield, which resulted in three Ukrainian soldiers killed by their own mines and the rest retreating in panic to their original positions.
Another failure of the offensive led to the fact that in the Ukrainian army, the number of desertions increased significantly. Only in the second half of the past week, the DPR intelligence reported 15 AWOLs, with 8 of them deserted with arms.
Due to the complete degradation of the Ukrainian army, Kiev continued to strengthen its position with mercenaries and nationalists.
According to the LPR intelligence, last week in Schastye, a town north of Lugansk, arrived 4 Kamaz trucks with mercenaries, whose uniforms, arms and the manner of speech suggested that they had come from Lithuania.
In addition, in Schastye also arrived several units of the «Right Sector» radicals.
At the checkpoint «Stanitsa Luganskaya», located almost on the north-western outskirts of Lugansk, arrived special purpose units of the National Guard.
The LPR intelligence also detected in the vicinity of Lugansk, the arrival of another Ukrainian sniper group.
The Ukrainian President Poroshenko issued a decree on the payment to soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine an extra New Year allowance of 15,000 - 19,000 UAH, despite the fact that an ordinary soldier of the Ukrainian army receives 7,000 UAH per month, much of which is deducted by the commanders through various fines.
Kiev is also continuing to deliver weapons and equipment to the frontline.
In the locality of Novoluganskoe, which before had been situated in the «gray» zone and had been seized by the Ukrainian military the previous week, arrived 8 122mm howitzers and 6 tanks.
In the Donetsk segment of the front, Kiev delivered 6 MLRS «Uragan», 12 MLRS «Grad» and 5 motorized artillery systems.
In the Lugansk segment of the front, the Ukrainian military placed 4 tanks, 2 motorized artillery systems and several military trucks on the territory of the local hospital, hiding again from the return fire of the Republics behind civilians.
At the same time, the local population on the Kiev-controlled territories reported that the weapons and equipment sent by Kiev to replace pieces destroyed during an unsuccessful attack the previous week, was out of order and immediately sent to the rear for repair.
At the end of the past week, the military authorities of the Republics summed up the military situation in Donbass in 2016.
In the Donetsk segment of the front, over the year, the Ukrainian side opened fire on the territory of the DPR over 143,000 times, with more than a half of the rounds made from heavy weapons: MLRS, artillery, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and heavy mortars. The total weight of ammunition launched on the DPR reached 2,000 tons.
As a result of shelling, in 2016 in the Republic were killed 314 civilians, including 3 children. The number of wounded civilians exceeded 400 people, including 16 children and 83 women. A considerable part of the wounded was workers of repair crews, who came to spots of shelling to repair damaged pipelines and power lines, and were immediately shelled again by the Ukrainian military.
During 2016, in the DPR were destroyed or damaged over 800 houses and objects of vital infrastructure.
In the LPR, the number of attacks from the Ukrainian side exceeded 1,300 times in 2016, as a result of which there were destroyed or damaged over 30 houses and objects of vital infrastructure.
In both Donetsk and Luhansk segments of the front, the army of the Republics repelled all year attempts of the Ukrainian military to break through: there were over 100 attacks on the Donetsk front and over 50 on the Lugansk front. It should be noted that most of attempts to break through occurred in the fourth quarter of 2016, following statements by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, Avakov, and the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Turchinov, on the need to seize Donbass by force.
To this end, Kiev repeatedly drove its soldiers into attacks, thoroughly hiding heavy losses in each of them. According to the Ukrainian official data, in 2016 the number of losses in the Ukrainian army amounted to 214 killed and 1,324 wounded. However, according to incomplete data of Ukrainian volunteers and the medical staff of Ukrainian hospitals, these losses exceeded 600 men killed and 2,000 wounded.
The intention of the Ukrainian authorities to solve the conflict in Donbass by force is also illustrated by the number of troops and weapons concentrated by Kiev on the front line.
According to the military authorities of the Republics, as of December 2016, in the Donetsk segment of the front, Kiev amassed over 32,000 personnel of the Ukrainian army, over 200 tanks and 1,150 armored vehicles, 84 MLRS, 350 artillery systems and 200 mortars.
The LPR Defense Ministry reported that after the failure of the offensive in the Debaltsevo direction, Kiev still can not make up for the losses in manpower and arms. However, in the Lugansk segment of the front, as of December 2016, there are amassed almost 19,500 of the Ukrainian personnel, 180 tanks and 600 armored vehicles, 80 MLRS, nearly 250 artillery systems and 100 mortars.
Early last week, the advisor to the Minister of the Interior called on the Ukrainian authorities to stop any negotiations and immediately ‘liberate the occupied territories’, while the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said that in 2016 the Ukrainian army had shown that it could confidently hold its positions and was ready to «liberate» Donbass.
At the same time, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Turchinov said that the Ukrainian army was ready to carry out an offensive along the entire front line, even with daily losses of up to 1,000 men.
Late last week, the Ukrainian government authorized the military to open fire on the aircraft that violate the state border of Ukraine illegally, or are suspected of committing terrorist attacks in the Ukrainian airspace, including in the ATO area.
On the eve of New Year, the President of Ukraine Poroshenko, accompanied by US senators led by John McCain, visited the southern, Mariupol segment of the Donetsk front, where the American politicians promised the Ukrainian military the ‘further full support from the United States’.
As soon as they left, the Ukrainian military opened heavy fire on the frontline localities of the DPR.
And yet, in his address to the Ukrainian military in Mariupol, the President Poroshenko virtually repeated his New Year's speech, however replacing, for some strange reason, only the first word in one of the phrases.
‘The Ukrainian occupation is temporary,’ said the Ukrainian President in Donbass.
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