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Ukraine concentrates heavy artillery and aircraft in Donbas — DPR’s Defense Ministry

The intelligence service has also confirmed the location of the Tochka-U tactical missiles, DPR’s Defense Ministry spokesperson said
Ukrainian army soldiers  AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov
Ukrainian army soldiers
© AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov

MOSCOW, August 18 /TASS/. The intelligence service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has discovered more than 500 combat vehicles and Grad multiple rocket launcher systems near the disengagement line with Ukraine, according to the DPR’s Defense Ministry.

The intelligence service has also confirmed the location of the Tochka-U tactical missiles, the ministry’s spokesperson, Eduard Basurin, told journalists on Tuesday.

"Two armoured personnel carriers; one Grad multiple rocket launcher system and two off-roaders with submachine guns on top have been re-deployed in the direction of Dokuchayevsk," the Donetsk news agency quoted Basurin as saying.

"The DPR intelligence has also noticed how a column comprising six Grad multiple rocket launcher systems; two radar systems (used for detection of air, off-shore and ground targets) as well as 18 trucks with ammunition and personnel was leaving the Selidovo populated locality in southeastern direction," Basurin said.

He added that a column comprising 18 armoured personnel carriers, six of which were armed with anti-tank guided missiles, were moving out of Mariupol towards the Lebedinskoye populated locality.

"The intelligence confirmed reports about the location of two Tochka-U tactical missile systems in the town of Chasov Yar (the Artyomovsky district)," Basurin said.

Under the Minsk agreements, artillery guns with a caliber of more than 100 mm should be pulled out to a distance of 50 kilometers from the contact line; MRLS to 70 kilometers; the MRLS "Uragan" and "Smerch" as well as the Tochka-U missiles to 140 kilometers from the disengagement line.

The sides are supposed to pull out their weapons to equal distances: Kiev from the current line of contact and the DPR and LPR from a line fixed in the Minsk memorandum of September 19. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian army continues shelling populated localities in the DPR, including the use of heavy artillery and multiple rocket launcher systems.