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Donbas militia claim Donetsk suburbs were shelled by Ukrainian army

A source in the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed DPR said that the area of Staromikhailovka in western Donetsk came under fire

© Stepan Petrenko/TASS

MOSCOW, December 30. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Armed Forces have violated the silence regime over the past day once, a source in the Defense Ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told the Donetsk News Agency on Wednesday.

"The enemy has violated the ceasefire regime once over the past 24 hours," the source said.

It said the area of Staromikhailovka in western Donetsk came under fire. Overall, ten shots were made from an infantry fighting vehicle.

At talks in Minsk on December 22, the Contact Group on settlement in Donbass reached a joint decision to establish from 00:00 December 23, 2015 a complete and unconditional ceasefire - the sixth since the conflict start.

Ukrainian troops have been engaged in fighting with local militias during Kiev’s punitive operation, underway since mid-April 2014, against the breakaway territories - the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics constituting parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

Massive shelling of residential neighborhoods, including with the use of aviation, has killed thousands and led to a humanitarian disaster in the area.

Kiev has regularly violated the ceasefire regime imposed as part of the Package of Measures on implementation of the September 2014 Minsk Agreements.

The Package (Minsk-2) was signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarusian capital Minsk by participants of the Contact Group on settlement in Donbass.

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