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Three militia fighters killed in shelling of Donetsk republic over past week

A total of 2,086 episodes of shelling of DPR territories by Ukrainian troops were reported in the past week

© Valentin Sprinchak/TASS

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Three servicemen of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) were killed and three more were wounded in the past week in shelling by Ukrainian troops, commanded of the DPR operational headquarters Denis Sinenkov said on Friday.

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OSCE may send police mission to Donbass during elections

"Three servicemen were killed and three more were wounded in shelling," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

Earlier in the day, he said that a total of 2,086 episodes of shelling of DPR territories by Ukrainian troops were reported in the past week.

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, 2015 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 April 29, the Contact Group for a settlement in eastern Ukraine agreed the full ceasefire in Donbass starting from the midnight of April 30. It is an eighth ceasefire agreement since the autumn of 2014. The sides however continue to accuse each other of ceasefire violation.

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