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Militia say Kiev forces violated ceasefire regime 80 times over last week

Three self-defense fighters were injured in shellings

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian forces have shelled the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) 82 times over the last week, DPR defense ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin said on Monday.

"Ukrainian forces have violated ceasefire regime 82 times over last week," Donetsk News Agency quoted Basurin as saying.

The spokesman added that three self-defense fighters were injured in shellings by Ukrainian forces.

According to Basurin, Kiev forces fired more than 188 mines, including 130 mines of 120mm caliber, 58 mines of 82mm caliber, and 22 tank shells at DPR settlements and positions of self-defense forces. Information about ceasefire regime violations were reported to representatives of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Ukraine, Basurin added.

It was earlier reported that Ukrainian forces shelled DPR territory seven times over last 24 hours.

Minsk agreements on Ukraine

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 DPR defense ministry registered the growing number of shellings near Gorlovka and in Donetsk’s northern and western outskirts. Deputy Chief Monitor of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Hug said that Donetsk’s outskirts and Gorlovka remain the "hot spots" on the contact line 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.