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Donbass militia report Ukrainian army shells Donetsk, Lugansk republics

DONETSK/LUGANSK, May 15. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have violated the ceasefire in the Donbass region 50 times over the past 24 hours, the defense ministries of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR) reported on Monday.

"The Ukrainian armed forces have violated the ceasefire 48 times over the past 24 hours," the Donetsk News Agency quotes a source in the DPR command as saying.

UKRAINE CRISIS

The Ukrainian military used artillery, mortars, infantry combat vehicles, armored vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms, with 16 populated localities in the DPR coming under fire. For his part, the head of Donetsk’s Petrovsky District Administration added that a dwelling house had been damaged by shelling in the village of Trudovskiye.

The Ukrainian army also shelled LPR people’s militia positions twice. "The urban-type settlement of Kalinovo came under fire from the area close to the village of Novozvanovka, with the Ukrainian mlitary using 120mm mortars and automatic grenade launchers," the Luganskinformtsentr news agency quotes a source in the LPR people’s militia as saying.

Members of the Contact Group on the settlement in eastern Ukraine reached an agreement on a ceasefire as of April 1 at a meeting in Minsk on March 29. At the April 12 meeting, the parties reiterated their commitment to the Easter truce, which was to come into effect at 10am Moscow Time on April 13. However, ceasefire violations persist.

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