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Ukrainian military capture Donetsk water purification plant — spokesman

The water purification plant is located between Avdeyevka and Yasinovataya. The plant supplies water to settlements on either side of the front line

DONETSK, February 25. /TASS/. At night to Saturday the Ukrainian military captured facilities of the Donetsk water purification plant, spokesman of DPR’s defense authority Eduard Basurin said on Saturday.

"Last night, the Ukrainian side in violation of all agreements and undertaken obligations captured facilities of the Donetsk water purification plant to use the territory for launching fire on our positions," he said. "Being aware of the fact our units observe the Minsk agreements and do not open fire on vitally important facilities, the enemy was sure of absolute impunity."

The Ukrainian military from the plant’s territory used mortars and high-caliber automatic guns, the spokesman told the Donetsk News Agency. The military targeted not only at positions of the republic’s forces, but also at residential areas in Yasinovataya and Spartak. The water purification plant was captured by militants of the Ukrainian nationalistic groups.

"The conclusion is that the Ukrainian authorities now do not have control of the situation, and they are unable to provide security to the Ukrainian citizens," he continued. "This is why we are calling on foreign leaders to have units of nationalists out from the force operation in Donbass, thus fulfilling the written guarantees of March 15, 2016."

Earlier on Saturday, Lugansk’s envoy to the Minsk talks Vladislav Deinego said the Contact Group on Ukraine plans to have a video conference later in the day to discuss the aggravated situation in Donbass. The water purification plant is located between Avdeyevka and Yasinovataya. The plant supplies water to settlements on either side of the front line, including Donetsk, Yasinovataya, Vasilyevka and Spartak controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), and Avdeyevka, Krasnogorovka and Verkhnetoretskoye controlled by Kiev. In the course of the continuing armed conflict, the plant has been under shelling many times already.

On February 1, members the Contact Group on settling the conflict in eastern Ukraine held a meeting in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, demanding that hostilities in Donbass be stopped, weapons and military hardware be withdrawn from the line of contact area by February 5. However, the Ukrainian military has not implemented the decisions of the Contact Group.

On February 15, the Contact Group made a decision that all weapons banned by the Minsk agreements should be withdrawn from the line of contact by February 20. Foreign ministers of the four member states of the Normandy Quartet (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine) upheld this initiative at a meeting held on February 18.

However, on February 21, Kiev disrupted the weapons withdrawal process.