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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Three people killed in Kiev forces’ shellings in Donetsk republic

According to the DPR defense ministry, the Kiev forces shelled towns and settlements in DPR 34 times over the last 24 hours

© EPA/TASS/ ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO

MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/. Three people were killed in Ukrainian forces’ shelling of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Donetsk administration representative Ivan Prikhodko said on Thursday.

"Over the last 24 hours, in the Kuybyshevsky district [of Donetsk], a man aged 59 was killed as a result of mortar shelling," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Prikhodko as saying.

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Head of the Shirokino village administration Alexander Luschenko also reported a civilian death as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian forces. "A civilian, a man aged 45, was injured in shellings. He was brought to a hospital in Novoazovsk. [Doctors] couldn’t save him, he died," Luschenko said.

According to the DPR defense ministry, the Kiev forces shelled towns and settlements in DPR 34 times over the last 24 hours. One militia fighter was killed, three more sustained injuries.

Ceasefire in eastern Ukraine is one of the key point of the Minsk agreements on the Ukrainian settlement. Other points include heavy weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local elections in Donbas and constitutional reform in Ukraine.

The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The talks lasted for around 14 hours. Simultaneously, a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement was held in Minsk.

The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.

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Military operation in eastern Ukraine: first anniversary

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Eastern Ukraine

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