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Ukrainian military fire more than 250 shells, mines on Lugansk Republic

The situation in the republic has a tendency for aggravation, the militia’s spokesman Andrei Marochko told Luganskinformcenter on Saturday

LUGANSK, November 18. /TASS/. Units of the Ukrainian military over past 24 hours fired on territory of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) more than 250 shells and mines, the militia’s spokesman Andrei Marochko told Luganskinformcenter on Saturday.

"Under fire were positions of our units in Kalinovo, Sokolniki, Zhelobok, Dolgoye, Prishib and Logvinovo," he said. "The Ukrainian Armed Forces used 120 and 82mm mortars, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, antiaircraft systems, grenade launchers and small arms."

The situation in the republic has a tendency for aggravation, he added.

Earlier on Saturday, the republic’s defense authority reported the Ukrainian military twelve times had violated ceasefire within 24 hours.

Since the fall of 2014, participants in the Contact Group on East Ukrainian settlement have announced about a dozen of ceasefire deals. On June 24, the so-called "harvest ceasefire" came into effect - it was expected to hold until the end of August. However, shelling incidents continued to happen.

On August 23, the Contact Group members declared a "back-to-school" ceasefire in Donbass starting from August 25. However, on that very day, defense authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk Republics reported that their territories had come under shelling from positions of the Ukrainian troops. Kiev, in turn, has been accusing the republics of violating the ceasefire.

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