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DPR defense ministry reports Kiev troops shelling Donetsk outskirts, airport

82mm and 120 mm mortars, grenade launchers and small arms were used

MOSCOW, November 17./TASS/. Kiev troops shelled last night northern outskirts of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, its defense ministry reported on Tuesday.

"The first shelling incident by Ukrainian troops was fixed at about 20:20 local time," the Donetsk News Agency quoted a military source as saying. The source said the territory of the former airways terminal of Donetsk was hit.

Almost at the same time, the shelling was fixed in the settlements of Spartak and Zhabichevo outside Donetsk, as well as on northern outskirts of Donetsk, the source continued.

He said the shelling came from troops’ positions in the settlements of Peski in Opytnoye, with the use of 82mm and 120 mm mortars, grenade launchers and small arms. The shelling ceased close to the midnight.

At the meeting of the Contact Group for Ukraine settlement in Minsk on August 26, the participants confirmed their plans to ensure ceasefire in Donbas from September 1.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 Donbas.

The Minsk accords signed on February 12 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.