LUGANSK, January 30. /TASS/. Ukraine’s army has deployed special operations forces to the contact line in Donbass and is conducting reconnaissance operations, Ivan Filiponenko, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), said on Sunday.
"Servicemen of the Zapad special operations center (formed 8th regiment of the special operations force) arrived in the vicinity of the settlement of Novoluganskoye, in the responsibility zone of the 2nd mechanized battalion of the 30th Ukrainian army brigade," LugansInformCenter quoted him as saying.
Apart from that, according to Filiponenko, Ukrainian troops ae conducting reconnaissance operations near the settlement of Stanitsa Luganskaya, including with the use of drones.
Yan Leshchenko, head of the LPR’s People’s Militia, said earlier that Ukrainian troops were getting prepared for an offensive in Donbass.
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.