LUGANSK, December 18. /TASS/. Ukrainian troops attempted an offensive near the settlement of Kalinovka in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) on Sunday. As a result, ten Ukrainian servicemen were killed more than 20 were wounded, a spokesman for the LPR militias said.
"Ukraine’s armed forces attempted an offensive near the settlement of Kalinovka near Debaltsevo," LuganskInformCenter quoted him as saying.
According to the spokesman, the offensive was repelled. Ten Ukrainian troops were killed and more than 20 were wounded. Two LPR servicemen were wounded and two more are missing.
On August 26, the parties to the Contact Group for settling the armed civil conflict in eastern Ukraine made a 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 fulfil the September 2014 Minsk agreements, known as Minsk-2, that was 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.