LUGANSK, February 5. /TASS/. Ukraine’s military have relocated to the line of engagement self-propelled artillery units (SAU), tanks, infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) and armored personnel carriers (APCs), militia’s spokesman of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Andrei Marchenko said on Sunday.
"We have fixed arrival to Zolotoye of nine trucks with munition, escorted by four APCs," LuganskInformCenter quoted him. "With the convoy have come 20 well-equipped personnel."
In Vozrozhdeniye, at night, arrived a convoy of the Ukrainian armored vehicles, including three tanks, two SAU and five IFVs, and a group of foreign mercenaries arrived in Troitskoye.
"Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces activated reconnaissance along the combat engagement by means of unmanned aerial vehicles," the spokesman said. Near Krymskoye, he continued, the Ukrainian military conducted aerial reconnaissance so that a sabotage group could get into the "grey zone" and into LPR territory for sabotage actions there.
The past few days have seen a surge in tensions along the engagement line. Bombardments by Ukrainian forces have caused civilian casualties and ruined many homes and infrastructures. The UN Security Council on Tuesday evening issued a special statement to express concern over what it said was "dangerous escalation. It urged both sides to cease fire immediately. The Security Council condemned the use of weapons outlawed by the Minsk Accords.
On February 1, the Contact Group for a settlement in the east of Ukraine met in session in Minsk to call for a ceasefire in Donbass and for pulling back all weapons and military equipment away from the engagement line by February 5.
In accordance with package of measures for the implementation of the Minsk Accords of February 12, 2015 all weapons having a caliber of 100 mm and more should be pulled back to points located 50 kilometers away from each other, multiple rocket launchers to areas 70 kilometers away, and multiple rocket launchers Tornado-S, Uragan and Smerch and Tochka missiles, to positions 140 kilometers away. Under an addendum to the package of measures all artillery pieces having a caliber of under 100 mm, tanks and mortars, including 120-mm mortars, are to be pulled back, too.