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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Donetsk Republic: Kiev’s military violate ceasefire 27 times

The Ukrainian military shelled Donetsk, Debaltsevo, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya. Besides, shelling was registered in Spartak, Zhavichevo, Lazovoye, Vasilyevka and Kalinovka

© Валерий Шарифулин/ТАСС

MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. The Defence Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) registered 27 violations by Kiev’s military of the ceasefire during past 24 hours, the authority said on Saturday.

"They shelled 27 times the territory of the Donetsk Republic," the Donetsk news agency quoted the ministry. "The republic’s militia say the Ukrainian military have used artillery again."

Read also

DPR expects Kiev to cancel amendments to law on Donbas after Contact Group meeting

The Ukrainian military shelled Donetsk (Kiev district, Oktyabrsky settlement, the area of the airport), Debaltsevo, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya. Besides, shelling was registered in Spartak, Zhavichevo, Lazovoye, Vasilyevka and Kalinovka.

Information about casualties is being checked now.

Developments in east Ukraine

Regular talks of the participants of the Trilateral Contact Group on east Ukrainian settlement comprising representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were held in the Belarusian capital Minsk on February 10-12. Talks of the Normandy Four leaders on the Ukrainian issue also ended February 12 in Minsk.

Read also

Russia says constitutional reform in Ukraine being carried out in breach of Minsk deal

A 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September Minsk agreements was adopted at those talks.

The package in particular included an agreement on cessation of fire from February 15, withdrawal of heavy armaments, as well as measures on long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine, including enforcement of a special self-rule status for certain districts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April 2014, to regain control over parts of the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People's republics, have left thousands dead and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee Ukraine’s embattled east.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict mediated by the OSCE agreed on a ceasefire at talks on September 5, 2014 in Minsk two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed his plan to settle the situation in the east of Ukraine. The ceasefire has reportedly been numerously violated since.

Ukraine’s parliament on September 16, 2014 adopted the law on a special self-rule status for certain districts in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions for three years. The law took effect October 18, 2014 but was then repealed by Kiev.

The Trilateral Contact Group adopted a memorandum on September 19, 2014 in Minsk. The document outlined the parameters for the implementation of commitments on the 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 calibres of over 100 millimetres to a distance of 15 kilometres from the contact line from each side. The OSCE was tasked with controlling implementation of the memorandum provisions.

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Eastern Ukraine

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