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Ukrainian military fire more than 300 shells, mines on Lugansk Republic

Two Ukrainian military died as they installed mines in the "grey zone"

LUGANSK, December 3. /TASS/. Units of the Ukrainian military over 24 hours fired on territory of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) more than 300 mines and shells, the militia’s spokesman Andrei Marochko said on Sunday.

"The Ukrainian military used 120 and 82 mm mortars, weapons of infantry fighting vehicles, grenade launchers and small arms," Luganskinformcenter quoted him as saying. "They fired more than 300 mines and shells."

Two Ukrainian military died as they installed mines in the "grey zone", and another three were injured, he added.

Earlier on Sunday, the spokesman said "the regions of Pervomaisk, Kalinovo, Golubovskoye settlement, Kalinovka village, Dolgoe, Logvinovo, Krutaya Gora, Lozovoye, Nizhne Lozovoe, Veselogorovka, Sokolniki and Kalinovo-Borshchevatoy were under shelling."

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.