MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. Eleven people have been killed in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in shelling from Ukrainian troops over the past week, a spokesman for the office of the DPR human rights ombudsman said on Friday.
"Eleven people, of whom two were civilians and nine were DPR servicemen, were killed in combat operations in the period from February 20 through 26," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.
According to official statistics of the DPR human rights ombudsman’s office, as many as 3,971 people have been killed since the beginning of the armed conflict in Donbass. More than 6,200 people have been wounded.
The Package of Measures to fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that was signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015 envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk 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.
On January 13, the Trilateral Contact Group meeting in the Belarusian capital city Minsk agreed on yet another, the seventh, ceasefire in Donbass from 00:00 on January 14. However Ukrainian troops reportedly continue to violate ceasefire.