DONETSK, June 22. /TASS/. Ukraine is stepping up its military provocations on the contact line amid the crisis at talks of the Contact Group for settling the conflict in Donbass, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement after four servicemen were killed in the Kiev forces’ shelling.

"The Ukrainian side is blatantly demonstrating sabotage of the achieved agreements: a lengthy crisis at the talks due to Kiev’s stonewalling of all key issues of the agenda, is deteriorating by tough military provocations on the contact line," the statement posted on the DPR Foreign Ministry’s Telegram channel said.

"While all guarantor states, as well as the United States, acknowledged that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements and they should be implemented, Ukraine is deliberately fueling tensions, satisfying its political ambitions at the cost of human lives," according to the statement.

The DPR Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission demanding an investigation into the death of DPR’s troops and holding accountable those behind this.

"Mean and unprincipled war methods of Ukraine’s Armed Forces banned by international humanitarian law demonstrate the fact that the official Kiev is not interested in complying with international law and holding civilized talks, which should be aimed at really ironing out the armed conflict rather than at deepening confrontation," the ministry stated.

The Foreign Ministry dismissed the Kiev forces’ steps as an open protest against additional measures on control over ceasefire, which have been in effect in Donbass since July 27, 2020.

In violation of the ceasefire agreements to ensure the evacuation of bodies of the killed servicemen, reached at the level of the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination’s leadership, the Kiev forces opened fire at an ambulance car with identification signs "deliberately and meanly."

The evacuation effort was carried out only after the Ukrainian side had provided written security guarantees with the mediation of the OSCE SMM. This tragedy will become a key issue on the agenda of the upcoming meetings of the working group for security issues and the Contact Group, the ministry stated.

On Monday morning, a mortar shelling carried out by Ukraine’s forces in the suburb of Donetsk killed three DPR servicemen and seriously wounded another one. Later an evacuation group traveling in an ambulance car came under the Kiev forces’ fire despite a declared ceasefire confirmed by Ukraine. One serviceman was killed in the shelling and four others were wounded.