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Developments in eastern Ukraine

DPR reports 36 ceasefire violations by Ukrainian troops over past day

According to the DPR defense ministry spokesman, over the day, the Ukrainian side fired 21 artillery and 17 tank shells, 123 mines of the 82mm and 120mm caliber

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS Archive

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MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/. As many as 36 episodes of ceasefire violation by Ukrainian troops, including with the use of heavy weapons, have been reported in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past 24 hours, a spokesman for the DPR defense ministry said on Friday.

"The intensity of shelling by the Ukrainian side in the past 24 hours was 36 violations of the ceasefire regime," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying. "The Ukrainian side continues to use artillery systems."

According to the spokesman, over the day, the Ukrainian side fired 21 artillery and 17 tank shells, 123 mines of the 82mm and 120mm caliber. Apart from that, Ukrainian troops were reported to use multiple missile launcher systems, grenade launchers and firearms.

Subject to shelling were Donetsk’s suburbs (Kievsky, Kuibyshevsky districts and areas adjacent to the airport), the settlements of Ysinovataya, Gorlovka, Zhabichevo and Spartak.

According to earlier reports, a girl was wounded in shelling in Donetsk’s Kievsky district on Thursday night.

Minsk agreements

The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, 2015 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 Petro Poroshenko) in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk. Concurrently, Minsk hosted a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukrainian settlement.

A 13-point Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk agreements 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 establishment of working subgroups as priority tasks.

The ceasefire however has been repeatedly violated.

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Eastern Ukraine

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