In the morning of June 10, 2016, the DNR requested an emergency meeting of the Contact Group in Minsk after the severe bombardments of the previous night, which led to the death of one and injury of another 15 civilians, including a 3-year old child, and the destruction of 77 homes in the Republic.
The first attempt at negotiations was thwarted by the Ukrainian side, and the meeting was held, in the conference video mode, only in the late afternoon. As a result of the negotiations, it was decided to establish a “silence regime" to conduct an investigation into the attacks. The investigative commission comprised representatives of Kiev, the DPR, the OSCE and the JCCC.
The following night Kiev resumed the massive shelling of the DPR territory.
The district of Donetsk, adjacent to the airport, was bombarded with incendiary shells; according to the DPR soldiers in positions, the Ukrainian side also used artillery, anti-aircraft systems and anti-tank grenade launchers in the attack. Residents of the DPR capital said that explosions of incoming shells were heard in almost all districts of the city.
Makeevka, a satellite town of Donetsk, was shelled with Ukrainian artillery. According to the DPR Defense Ministry, Kiev used 152mm howitzers in the shelling, and by midnight, residents of the town counted about 20 explosions.
Especially intensive fire was opened by Kiev at Gorlovka, the largest city in the north of the DPR, and its northern suburbs. The bombardment continued, according to local residents, from 11 pm to 5 am, and they had to spend the night in the basements. In the morning, the local authorities reported that the Ukrainian side had shelled the city with heavy mortars, having seriously damaged about 20 homes and fully de-energized its northern outskirts.
The artillery firewall also opened by the Ukrainian side at the Yasinovatsky checkpoint and many localities situated between Donetsk and Gorlovka. Locals reported bright orange flashes and multiple expositions of incoming projectiles.
The DPR army was forced to open return fire. An artillery duel near the Yasinovatsky checkpoint was clearly audible in many nearby localities. Judging by the sounds, the locals suggested the work of large calibers. The DPR soldiers reported, at least, several successful rounds, as fires broke out in the Ukrainian positions.
On June 11, Kiev made two attacks at the DPR army positions. Judging by their direction, the Republican army had managed to knock the Ukrainian troops out of the neutral zone, not only in the area of Gorlovka, which had been confirmed by Ukrainian volunteers, but also to the west of Donetsk, and Kiev tried to regain the lost territories. According to the DPR Defense Ministry, both attacks failed, with the Ukrainian side having lost 9 men killed and 19 wounded in their course.
Repelling the Ukrainian attacks, 2 DPR soldiers were killed.
The next night, t Kiev resumed he massive shelling of the DPR territory, shifting the brunt to Makeevka, situated in the north of Donetsk.
The shelling started at the Yasinovatsky checkpoint, at which, according to the DPR soldiers, for an hour and a half, the Ukrainian side launched 15 122mm artillery projectiles and dozens of 82 and 120mm mortar shells.
After that, Kiev shifted the attack at residential areas of Makeevka. According to the DPR Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian army shelled the town with 122 and 152 mm cannons, as well as with 82 and 120mm mortars. Staying in the centre of Donetsk, DONi reporters personally saw flashes and heard the roar of explosions.
In the morning, the local authorities reported that the bombardment of Makeevka had resulted in 5 civilians wounded, and houses on seven streets and a railway station damaged. In addition, eight transformer substations were de-energised, which left about a thousand residents without electricity supply, and 166 of them without gas supply.
Residents of the affected districts of the town talked about direct hits in homes, gates torn by blasts and walls and fences riddled with shrapnel.
https://youtu.be/8Fufeb2xVqAThe DPR Army was again forced to return fire, sighting it at the positions of the Ukrainian units and nationalist battalions, which had been shelling residential areas of the DPR localities. The precision of strikes by the Republican Army was confirmed by Ukrainian volunteers. They reported in the social networks about the DPR exact counter-battery artillery fire in the north, west and south of Donetsk, which had led, over the last night, to the death and injury of more than 50 radical nationalists and Ukrainian artillerists.
In addition, the DPR soldiers announced a hunt in the neutral zone for the Ukrainian armoured vehicles which had regularly been used in attacks at the outskirts of Donetsk. In the case of impossibility to deliver a tank or an infantry fighting vehicle to the DPR controlled territory, the vehicles are to be destroyed.
https://youtu.be/QXwOqds17XIThe ATO command, however, perseveres in refusing to recognise their losses. Over the past day, the press centre of the ATO headquarters reported 49 bombardments of the Ukrainian position on the part of the DPR, including the 24 counter-battery strikes in the Mariupol direction and 19 in the Donetsk direction, and 3 wounded soldiers of the Ukrainian army.
At the same time, Kiev volunteers reported that all Ukrainian paramilitary units in Donbas are alerted to the full combat readiness.
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