Kiev forces use ammunition produced abroad — LPR emergencies ministry

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces shell the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) using ammunition produced abroad, head of LPR emergencies ministry’s department of engineering and demining Alexander Brovko said on Thursday.

"There is a lot of foreign ammunition at the contact line. Ukrainian forces use mortars, anti-personnel and anti-tank mines manufactured in Italy, Poland. There are also units whose origin have not yet been established," LuhanskInformCenter quoted Brovko as saying.

According to LPR emergencies ministry, sappers find many Polish mines of 120mm caliber along the contact line near the Schastye town and in settlements of the Slavyanoserbsky district. Ukrainian forces also use anti-personnel mines near the settlement of Stanitsa Luhanskaya, but LPR miners have not yet established the origin and modification of these mines, Brovko explained.

"We don’t have literature on ammunition. We find on the Internet what we can and try to study what we cannot find online," he said.

Almost 100 Ukrainian armored vehicles spotted on contact line

The defense ministry spokesman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic said on Wednesday that more than 90 tanks, artillery and armored vehicles of Ukraine’s Armed Forces have been moved towards the contact line in Donbas.

The movement of troops and equipment to the areas close to the frontline comes with the use of fraudulent maneuvers, Eduard Basurin told reporters citing intelligence data.

The vehicles were found in the villages of Kodema, Prohorovka, Nevelsky and Andreyevka.

This comes in violation of the February 12 Minsk agreements which envisage the pullout of all heavy weapons by both sides to equal distance with the aim of creating a security zone on at least 50 kilometers apart for artillery systems of 100 mm caliber or more.

Ukrainian military try to break the militias’ defense 

The Ukrainian military tried to break the militias’ defense near the village of Starognatovka on the Mariupol direction early on August 10.

"After two hours of massive artillery preparation from large-caliber guns, Grad multiple rocket launchers, tanks and mortars near the Petrovskoye, Novaya Laspa and the Belaya Kamenka populated localities, the enemy used six armoured vehicles and six tanks to launch an offensive in the direction of Starognatovka and Belaya Kamenka," Eduard Basurin, the spokesperson for the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, told a briefing held at the Donetsk news agency.

He added that foreign drones and powerful field radio-electronic warfare complexes had been noticed in the vicinity of those populated localities since 3 o’clock in the morning on August 10.

A battle broke out between the Ukrainian troops and the militias. The Ukrainian military, Basurin said, were stopped and thrown back to the start line from where they continued shelling Petrovskoye and Belaya Kamenka.

The leadership of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has asked the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to investigate Ukraine’s offensive near Starognatovka.

"Last night, the Ukrainian military committed another gross violation of the Minsk agreements. They knew that we had lived up to our commitment to withdraw all heavy weapons, including with a caliber under 100mm (from the disengagement line), and decided to take advantage of the situation to move deep into the DPR’s territory," Basurin said.

"We are calling on the OSCE SMM and the Joint Control and Coordination Centre to carry out immediate and detailed investigation into the attack. We also want the world community to be informed about the incident," he added.

Basurin also called on Germany, France and Russia that guarantee the implementation of the Minsk agreements to influence the Kiev leadership and make it end its provocations and stop the shelling of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic.