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Donetsk republic reported 80 ceasefire violations by Kiev troops over past week

The bulk of shelling episodes occurred in the nighttime "in a bid to conceal provocations from the OSCE mission,"

© Mikhail Sokolov/TASS

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. As many as 80 ceasefire violations by Ukrainian troops have been reported by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) over the past week, DPR defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Monday.

"Over the past week, Ukrainian troops committed 80 violations of the ceasefire regime," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying. "As many as 250 mines of the 120mm and 82mm caliber were fired at DPR settlements and positions of the DPR army, as many as 13 episodes of shelling from tanks were reported."

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Kiev pulls about 100 units of military hardware to engagement line in Donbas — DPR

The ministry also said there were 23 ceasefire violations over the past 24 hours.

The bulk of shelling episodes occurred in the nighttime "in a bid to conceal provocations from the OSCE mission," he said.

According to the DPR defense ministry, the situation in the republic has aggravated, with increased shelling opened by Ukrainian troops at the DPR territory. Earlier reports said that Ukrainian troops had shelled Donetsk and its suburbs overnight to Monday.

The Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine comprising senior representatives from Russia, Ukraine and the European security watchdog OSCE on February 12, 2015, signed a 13-point Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements. The package was agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four, namely Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine.

Read also

OSCE official concerned with escalation of violence in Ukraine, calls for restrain

The Package of Measures, known as Minsk-2, envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics of east Ukraine starting from February 15 and subsequent withdrawal of heavy weapons from the line of engagement. The deal also laid out a roadmap for a lasting settlement in Ukraine, including local elections and constitutional reform to give more autonomy to the war-torn eastern regions.

In line with an agreement reached in Minsk at a meeting of the Contact Group on settling the situation in east Ukraine, a complete ceasefire was established from September 1 at the disengagement line in Donbas. Still, the DPR regularly registers separate instances of shelling on the part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

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