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Ukrainian army resumes mortar shelling of Slavyansk

Clashes have been underway between the Ukrainian military and militias in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions

© ЕРА/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

SLAVYANSK, June 11 /ITAR-TASS/. The Ukrainian army on Wednesday resumed their mortar shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk, a representative of the people’s militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said Wednesday.

Earlier, the Ukrainian army shelled the village of Semyonovka. At that moment, a few groups of journalists from Russia were working there; none of them were hurt, he said.

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Clashes have been underway between the Ukrainian military and militias in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which refused to recognize the authorities who had been propelled to power amid riots during a coup in Ukraine in February 2014.

A Kiev-led punitive operation against federalization supporters in Ukraine's Southeast that involves armored vehicles, heavy artillery and attack aviation has already claimed dozens of lives, including civilian, and left some buildings destroyed and damaged.

Billionaire businessman and politician Pyotr Poroshenko, who had funded anti-government protests that led to February’s coup, won the May 25 early presidential election in Ukraine set by the provisional Kiev authorities. He was sworn in on June 7. Despite hopes that the punitive operation will stop under Poroshenko, it still continues.

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