LUGANSK, August 11. /TASS/. Eighty civilians, including three children, have been killed in the Ukrainian military’s shelling attacks on the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in the current round of tensions, the LPR mission to the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination said in a statement on Thursday.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ aggression has killed 80 people and left another 249 wounded. Three children have been killed and 23 have suffered wounds in shelling attacks," the statement reads.
According to the mission, 1,046 shelling attacks that the Ukrainian military carried out between February 17 and August 11 involved heavy weapons, including Tochka-U, Grad, Uragan and Smerch launchers, as well as US-made HIMARS systems. A total of 10,452 munitions were fired.
The mission specified that the attacks had destroyed or damaged over 2,000 homes, as well as 192 civilian infrastructure facilities.
Tensions escalated along the line of contact in Donbass on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics reported the heaviest shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in months. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics within the administrative borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as they were at the beginning of 2014, based on the DPR and LPR constitutions. On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics.
On July 3, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported to Putin that the LPR had been fully liberated from Ukrainian troops. However, the Ukrainian military continues shelling attacks from neighboring territories.