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Ukrainian forces shell Donetsk and suburbs — media

According to the local adminstration, it is hard to establish positions from which Ukrainian forces opened fire and the type of weapons used in shellings

© EPA/ANASTASIA VLASOVA

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Kiev accused of pulling 20 tanks, 6 artillery systems to engagement line in Donbas

MOSCOW, November 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces have shelled Donetsk’s Kirovsky district overnight, a local administration spokesperson told Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.

"The shelling started around 4am. After a direct hit, a roof of a residential house was destroyed. No one was injured as people managed to hide. Explosions were heard throughout the day yesterday, and strong shellings by Ukrainian forces started in the evening," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that it is hard to establish positions from which Ukrainian forces opened fire and the type of weapons used in shellings.

"The shelling has stopped for now but shots are still heard sometimes from the side where Ukrainian forces are positioned," the spokesperson said. The settlement of Staromikhaylovka on the western outskirts of Donetsk is located near the contact line and was earlier repeatedly shelled by Ukrainian forces.

Donetsk News Agency also reported that Ukrainian forces shelled the settlement of Spartak overnight. "They [Ukrainian forces] fired at us all night, and it still continues. We cannot go out of the house to get the coal that will be brought soon," the agency quoted one of the residents as saying. The agency said Ukrainian forces shelled residential areas from tanks, mortars and machine guns from the settlement of Opytnoye and Butovskaya mine.

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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 Donbass from September 1. Over the last weeks, only few violations of ceasefire regime were registered in Donbass. Observing ceasefire by both sides is one of the main conditions for completing withdrawal of weaponry of less than 100mm caliber from the contact line in Donbass.

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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