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Local official says Donetsk airport shelled for 4 hours

Joint Center for Control and Coordination specialists are working at the scene

Donetsk airport (archive) Valery Sharifulin/TASS

Donetsk airport (archive)

© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

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Donetsk’s northern and western outskirts reportedly shelled

MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces have been shelling the Donetsk airport since morning, Kybyshevsky district’s head Ivan Prikhodko told Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.

"The shelling of one of the terminal at the Donetsk airport that has started around 8am still continues. Around 12pm several explosions of mines of 120mm caliber were registered," Prikhodko said.

He noted that JCCC (Joint Center for Control and Coordination) specialists are working at the scene adding that no information is yet available on injuries.

It was reported earlier that Keiv forces opened fire from mortars and small arms at the Donetsk airport.

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At the meeting of the Contact Group in Minsk on August 26, the participants confirmed their plans to ensure ceasefire in Donbas from September 1. Over the last weeks, only few violations of ceasefire regime were registered in Donbas.

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 envisage ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election 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.

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Ukraine crisis Eastern Ukraine

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