MOSCOW, August 18. /TASS/. Seventeen people were killed in shellings by Ukrainian forces over last week, and 45 more were injured, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Tuesday.
"The total number of victims in bloody shellings over the last week is as follows - 17 civilians were killed, 45 people were injured," Donetsk News Agency quoted Basurin as saying.
Last week, DPR office of human rights ombudsperson said that almost 1,300 people have been killed in shellings by Ukraine forces in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) since the beginning of 2015.
"Since the start of 2015, 1,287 people have died - 1,088 men and 199 women," the office said. More than 1,100 people have been injured in DPR since the start of the year, DPR human rights office said citing reports by the DPR Center of urgent medical assistance.
Since the start of the armed conflict with Ukrainian forces, 5,061 people have been killed and 6,100 more injured.
Minsk agreements on Ukraine
Ceasefire is envisaged by the Minsk agreements on the settlements of the situation in Ukraine. The Minsk accords were signed on February 12, after negotiations in the so-called "Normandy format" in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
The Minsk accords also envisage weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local elections in Donbas, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.
The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.