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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Residential building burns down in east Ukraine shelling - Donetsk report

MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. A residential building has been completely destroyed by shelling of east Ukraine’s Spartak settlement, located not far from Donetsk airport, the district administration said on Sunday.

The house on Sovetskaya Street in the centre of the settlement caught fire and burned to the ground after shelling intensified on Sunday morning, the Donetsk news agency quoted a district administration official as saying.

On Saturday evening, Ukrainian government forces opened heavy fire on the centre of Donetsk, with explosions rocking a nearby secondary school. Part of the city’s Kuibyshevsky district was left without power. Emergency officials in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said one civilian had died in shelling.

Shells hit a Kuibyshevsky district hospital, injuring a doctor. Earlier in the day, a civilian sustained a shrapnel wound near a Ukrainian department store when he came under shelling from Kiev troops.

A February 12 peace deal struck in Minsk, Belarus, by leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and people’s militias starting from February 15.

This was to be followed by withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of military engagement by at least 15 kilometres (9 miles), prisoner release and agreement for international observers to monitor the truce.

Withdrawal was due to start no later than the second day after the truce came into effect, for completion within two weeks.

Buffer zones were to be established of at least 50 kilometres (30 miles) for artillery of 100mm calibre or more, 70 kilometres for multiple rocket launch systems and 140 kilometres for the heaviest rockets and missiles.

The self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have reiterated that the success of the truce depends entirely on the Ukrainian side.

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Eastern Ukraine

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