MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military are responsible for 57 violations of the ceasefire regime over the past 24 hours, the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) told the Donetsk News Agency on Sunday.
"Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military 200 times opened fire on the republic’s territory in 57 violations of the ceasefire regime," the source said.
Under most intensive fire was the part of road connecting Donetsk and Gorlovka near the Yasinovataya checkpoint, where the pro-Kiev military used tanks, launched 43 mines of 82 and 120 mm caliber.
Among the shelled areas were settlements Zaitsevo, Yakovlevka, Spartak, Staromikhailovka, Novaya Tavriya, Kominternovo, Sosnovskoye and the area of the Donetsk airport and the Volvo Center.
The shelling was made from weapons banned by the Minsk accords.
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. The Package, earlier agreed with the leaders of the Normandy Four (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine) envisioned an overwhelming cessation of fire and withdrawal of heavy armaments to create a security area in the region at least 50 kilometers wide.
In line with the agreement reached at talks in Minsk, from September 1, 2015 there should have been a complete cessation of fire at the disengagement line in Donbass. However, the Defense Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has registered an increased number of shelling instances over the past few months.