MOSCOW, January 2. /TASS/. The Ukrainian army shelled the territory controlled by the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) three times in the past twenty-four hours, the DPR Defense Ministry reported on Saturday.
"The Ukrainian side continues to violate grossly the Minsk accords. Units of the Ukrainian army have breached the ceasefire regime three times over the past twenty-four hours," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the DPR Defense Ministry as saying.
The Ukrainian military shelled the village of Staromikhailovka on the western outskirts of Donetsk and the settlement of Spartak north of the city, the DPR Defense Ministry said.
"Overall, the enemy fired more than ten mines with a caliber of 120 and 82 mm and up to ten rounds from an infantry fighting vehicle, the ministry added.
In turn, the headquarters of Kiev’s military operation in east Ukraine have accused the DPR militia of truce breaches.
Meanwhile, spokesman for the DPR Defense Ministry Eduard Basurin said on Saturday that the Ukrainian army had moved 20 pieces of heavy armor and tanks to the engagement line.
"Eight Grad multiple launch rocket systems have been detected in the village of Georgiyevka, seven kilometers from the engagement line. Also, the arrival of 12 self-propelled artillery systems, 18 tanks and 15 vehicles with the personnel of the Krym battalion has been noticed in the settlement of Artyomovsk (20 km from the engagement line)," Basurin was quoted by the Donetsk News Agency as saying.
Kiev has also moved several hundred foreign mercenaries to the engagement line, Basurin said.
"In the settlements of Pishchevsk and Nikolayevka [near Mariupol], 5 km and 8 km from the engagement line, respectively, the stay of several hundred mercenaries from Poland, Georgia and Turkey has been noticed," the spokesman of the DPR Defense Ministry said.
Meanwhile, the reconnaissance of the Lugansk People’s Republic has reported that a special forces group, Lugansk-1, of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has arrived to strengthen the Ukrainian army units stationed in the village of Schastye.
The Contact Group on the settlement of the armed conflict in east Ukraine urged the conflicting sides on December 22, 2015 to establish a full and unconditional ceasefire regime in the Donbass region from December 23, already the sixth truce since the autumn of 2014.
The package of measures for the fulfillment of the Minsk ceasefire accords, which was signed by the Contact Group on the Ukraine crisis settlement on February 12, obliges the warring sides to pull weapons with the caliber of 100 mm and more at a distance of 50 km (31 miles), multiple launch rocket systems at a distance of 70 km (43 miles), Uragan, Smerch volley fire rocket systems and Tochka ballistic missile complexes at a distance of 140 km (87 miles).
Under the September supplement to the package of measures for the fulfillment of the Minsk ceasefire accords, the warring sides also have to pull back weapons with a caliber of under 100 mm, tanks and mortars, including with a caliber of 120 mm.