KIEV, June 3. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff ordered to use artillery in the vicinity of the cities of Maryinka and Krasnogorovka, the UNIAN news agency reported Wednesday.
"The Ukrainian command, warning all international partners, had to use artillery, which prior to that was in the rear in areas defined by the Minsk agreements," the agency quoted the Staff as saying in a statement.
Earlier, self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Defense Minister Vladimir Kononov said the Ukrainian Armed Forces opened fire on the positions of DPR militia Wednesday morning along the entire contact line. As a result, at least 15 people were killed among militiamen and civilians.
Kononov said Ukraine’s actions were "planned beforehand" and designed "to disrupt Minsk-2."
In turn, DPR Defense Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said the order to open fire on cities and inhabited localities of the DPR was given by the Ukrainian Armed Forces command, and the shelling was not the result of actions of the so-called volunteer battalions.
Kiev has regularly violated the ceasefire regime imposed as part of the Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements. The Package was signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarusian capital Minsk by participants of the Contact Group on settlement in Donbass.
The Package, earlier agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine) first of all envisions an overwhelming cessation of fire and withdrawal of heavy armaments to create a security area in the region.
The constitutional reform and decentralization of power in Ukraine are also among the document’s key provisions. The renewed fundamental law should enter into force by the end of this year. The Package of Measures stipulates the holding in districts with a special status of local elections, agreed with representatives of the region and corresponding to OSCE standards.