DONETSK, February 23. /TASS/. Observers from the mission of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center and a repair team came under the Ukrainian army’s mortar fire during agreed works at an electric power substation, the DPR mission reported on Wednesday.
"An observation group of the DPR mission to the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center and a repair team of electric power specialists came under mortar fire of the Ukrainian military during repair and recovery works at the PS-35 kV Chekist electric power substation in Staromikhailovka, for which the Ukrainian side in the Joint Ceasefire Control and Coordination Center provided written security guarantees," the mission said in a statement.
No one was hurt in the shelling, the DPR mission added.
The electric power substation in the settlement of Staromikhailovka in the west of Donetsk was cut off power in the Ukrainian army’s bombardments on February 21, leaving a part of the community without electricity.
The situation at the line of engagement in Donbass escalated on the morning of February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian military in recent months.
On February 18, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin announced evacuations of civilians from the territory of the republics into Russia over the mounting threat of hostilities. On February 19, the Donbass republics announced a general mobilization.