DONETSK, October 21. /TASS/. The settlement of Alexandrovka in Donetsk’s western suburb has come under shelling by Ukrainian troops. A private house is on fire, a source in the law enforcement agencies of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Friday.
"The Ukrainian side began to shell Alexandrovka at 9:10pm local time. A shell hit a private house, setting it on fire," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the source as saying. According to the source, Ukrainian troops used 120mm mortars.
On August 26, the parties to the Contact Group for settling the armed civil conflict in eastern Ukraine made yet another, ninth, attempt to attain ceasefire. The agreement they reached suggests the ceasefire takes effect as of September 1. However, the security situation in Donbass has not visibly improved, with the parties continuing to exchange accusations of ceasefire violations.
The Package of Measures to fulfill the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that were signed in Minsk on February 12, 2015, envisaged a ceasefire regime between Ukrainian government forces and people’s militias in the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR) starting from February 15, 2015 and a 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.