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Rossiya TV channel reports come under shelling by Ukrainian troops in Donbass

"Thanks to DPR servicemen who shielded the journalists when shelling began, the group was taken from the hazardous zone," a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed DPR said

MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. A group of Russian reporters from the Rossiya television channel came under shelling by Ukrainian troops near the Ysinovataya checkpoint on the highway linking the cities of Donetsk and Gorlovka, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Sunday.

"At about 17:00, a group of journalists from the Rossiya television channel came under mortar shelling by Ukrainian troops near the Yasinovataya checkpoint," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

The spokesman said that luckily no one was hurt. "Thanks to DPR servicemen who shielded the journalists when shelling began, the group was taken from the hazardous zone," the spokesman said, adding that now the journalists are in a safe place.

The television channel was unavailable for comment.

The Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that was signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015 envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk starting from February 15, 2015 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.

On April 29, the Contact Group for a settlement in eastern Ukraine agreed the full ceasefire in Donbass starting from the midnight of April 30. It is an eighth ceasefire agreement since the autumn of 2014. The sides however continue to accuse each other of ceasefire violation.