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DPR defence ministry says Ukrainian troops shelling Donetsk airport from artillery units

According to preliminary data, no one was killed

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. Ukraine’s troops opened concentrated artillery fire at the Donetsk airport and the settlement of Oktyabrsky late on Sunday, the ministry of defence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic /DPR/ told the Donetsk News Agency.

"Ukrainian troops are shelling the Donetsk airport and the settlement of Okrtyabrsky from 152 mm artillery units," the DPR ministry said. "The shelling caused fire of the roof in a dwelling house in Oktyabrsky."

DPR’s emergency ministry told the Donetsk New Agency rescuers were taking effort to localize fire.

According to preliminary data, no one was killed. No information about those injured is available.

Talks between the Normandy Four leaders

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE adopted a memorandum on September 19, 2014 in Minsk. The document outlined the parameters for the implementation of commitments on ceasefire in Ukraine laid down in the Minsk Protocol of September 5, 2014. The nine-point memorandum in particular envisioned a ban on the use of all armaments and withdrawal of weapons with the calibers of over 100 millimeters to a distance of 15 kilometers from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling the implementation of memorandum provisions.

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Russian diplomat says Kiev must restrain its volunteer battalions acting in Donbas

Marathon talks between the Normandy Four leaders - Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko - in Minsk on February 12 yielded a package of agreements, which in particular envisaged ceasefire between the Ukrainian conflicting sides starting from midnight on February 15.

Concurrently, the Belarusian capital hosted a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine. As a result, a package of measures was adopted to implement the Minsk agreements. The package of measures envisages the pullback of all heavy weapons by both parties to locations equidistant from the disengagement line in order to create a security zone at least 50 kilometers wide for artillery systems with a caliber of 100 mm or more, a zone of security 70 kilometers wide for multiple rocket launchers and a zone 140 kilometers wide for multiple rocket launchers Tornado-S, Uragan and Smerch and the tactical rocket systems Tochka-U.

The final document says that the Ukrainian troops are to be pulled back away from the current line of engagement and the militias of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, from the engagement line set by the Minsk Memorandum of September 19, 2014.

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