DONETSK, February 21. /TASS/. Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), has confirmed that armed clashes with the Ukrainian army are underway near the Russian border.
"The situation in the Mariupol direction has aggravated dramatically. Militants of the Ukrainian army’s 36th brigade have attacked the positions of the DPR People’s Militia near the settlement of Kominternovo. Armed clashes are underway near the border with Russia," he said in a press statement posted on his Telegram channel on Monday.
The DPR minister of state security said earlier on Monday that a Ukrainian subversive group had infiltrated into the republic’s territory aiming to reach the border with Russia. According to the ministry, Ukrainian militants tried to approach the Russian border but were rebuffed by DPR militias.
The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse in the morning of February 17. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics report the most massive shelling by the Ukrainian military over the past months. There have been no reports of deaths, but one civilian woman was wounded and the shelling damaged some civilian facilities.
Amid the mounting threat of combat actions, the self-proclaimed republics on Friday announced the evacuation of civilians to Russia. On Saturday, the Donbass republics announced general mobilization.