DONETSK, May 14. /ITAR-TASS/. Envoys acting on behalf of the Popular Guard of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) are blocking a Ukrainian military base located on Kuprin Street in the city of Donetsk, the DPR press service told ITAR-TASS.

The envoys have proposed the servicemen to lay down arms voluntarily.

“We’re holding talks with the commanding officers and demanding that the base lay down arms,” a spokesman for the DPR said.

He also said the population of townships and villages in various parts of the region continued putting up checkpoints for counteracting the Kiev government’s armed units that continued the punitive operation in the area.

In addition to this, the press service said several more people had been wounded in combat clashes near the city of Slavyansk in the small hours of Wednesday.

Tuesday, the press service informed ITAR-TASS about combat clashes between the People’s Guard fighters and the paramilitaries of the so-called ‘Ukrainian national guard’ that had taken place near in the villages of Oktyabrskoye and Dmitrovka near the city of Kramatorsk. They quoted the data suggesting that “members of the People’s Guard had put several combat vehicles out of operation.

In the meantime, officials at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in Kiev claimed that six soldiers had died and nine had been wounded. The People’s Guard said one man had died on their side and several more people had been wounded.

A spokesman for the People’s Guard in Kramatorsk told ITAR-TASS that a peaceful civilian died May 13 and two more people had been wounded during clashes May 13.

An exchange of fire trapped a farm working his plantation out in the field. Funerals of the victims of this fighting were held in Kramatorsk Wednesday.

In the meantime, Ukraine’s interim President Oleksandr Turchynov said unambiguously May 13 that the operation of the Ukrainian Army in the east of the country would continue.