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Pro-Kiev troops hurl 40 mortars into Donetsk republic’s checkpoint - DPR

"The Ukrainian side has shelled the Yasinovataya checkpoint with ten mortars 120mm caliber and 30 mortars 82mm caliber", said the Donetsk news agency

© EPA/VLADIMIR VLADIMIROV

MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. Shelling has not been silenced on the road connecting the cities of Donetsk and Gorlovka as the pro-Kiev troops hurled 40 mortars into the militias’ checkpoint near the town of Yasinovataya, the defense agencies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Saturday.

UKRAINE CRISIS

"In the daylight the Ukrainian side has shelled the Yasinovataya checkpoint with ten mortars 120mm caliber and 30 mortars 82mm caliber," the Donetsk news agency cited the DPR defense bodies’ official.

A shot from a tank was registered among the other shots.

Kiev-controlled troops used grenade launchers and small arms as well.

On March 11, Ukrainian military mad an attempt to regain control over the Donetsk-Gorlovka road near Ysinovataya, a strategic road for the unrecognized republic. The shelling has been continuing in the area for the past seven days.

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.

Minsk provisions backed by leaders of the "Normandy Four" group assembling Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France in the Belarussian capital in February 2015 envisaged a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and eastern region people’s militias starting that month.

A 13-point package sought withdrawal of heavy weapons from a line disengaging Kiev troops and militias alongside measures for a long-term political settlement in Donbass.

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