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DPR defence ministry: Ukrainian troops shelling Donetsk suburbs from tanks and mortars

No information is available about casualties and damages

© EPA/TASS/ROMAN PILIPEY

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops are shelling Donetsk suburbs from tanks and mortar, a spokesman for the defence ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said late on Monday.

"Ukrainian troops have opened tank and mortar fire at the settlement of Oktyabrsky and the Donetsk airport from the settlement of Oputnoye," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying. The spokesman said Ukrainian troops were using 82 and 120 mm mortars.

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

The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, after 14-hour negotiations between the leaders of Normandy Four (Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko) in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk. Concurrently, Minsk hosted a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement.

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