DOENTSK, January 23. /TASS/. Ukraine has deployed Uragan multiple missile launcher systems northwest of the city of Slavyansk, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Sunday.

"Under the pretext of drills, the command of the united forces’ operation (Kiev’s military operation in Donbass - TASS) deployed the third artillery division of the 27th artillery brigade armed with 220mm Uragan multiple missile launcher systems to the settlements of Krasnopolye and Adamovka," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

The DPR defense ministry reported earlier that Kiev was getting prepared for another attack. Thus, according to the DPR’s defense ministry, Uragan and Smerch systems had been delivered by railway transport to Pokrovsk. It also said that Ukraine’s forces had been reinforced by nationalists’ units and NATO weapons.

The situation in Donbass deteriorated dramatically on January 9, when Ukrainian troops resumed shelling along the entire contact line after a lengthy ceasefire.

Additional measures to control the ceasefire along the contact line in Donbass have been in force since July 27, 2020. The agreement came a year after the so-called indefinite ceasefire was declared by the parties on July 21, 2019, following more than 20 futile attempts to stop hostilities. Under the agreement, the parties to the conflict are banned from staging offensive and reconnaissance operations, the use of any type of drone, opening fire, including from sniper weapons, and deploying heavy weapons in populated localities and adding engineering equipment at their positions. One of the key provisions is the use of disciplinary measures for ceasefire violations.