LUHANSK, November 4. /TASS/. The Ukrainian army has been shelling inhabited localities of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) since Monday evening, acting LPR people’s police commander Oleg Bugrov said Tuesday.
“It started yesterday evening. The Ukrainian armed forces delivered an artillery strike in violation of all agreements established by the Minsk memorandum. They delivered strikes with Grad and Uragan (multiple launch rocket systems) on Kirovsk, Frunze, Stakhanov. Civilians died,” Bugrov said.
At the same time, he said the LPR people’s police are ready for Ukrainian army attacks. “The Ukrainian army constantly violates the ceasefire regime,” he said.
Shelling sounds were heard in downtown Luhansk during inauguration of Igor Plotnitsky as head of the LPR, a TASS correspondent reported.
According to the UN, more than 4,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s war-torn south-east as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, conducted since mid-April, to regain control over the breakaway territories.
The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on September 5 in the Belarusian capital Minsk. The ceasefire took effect the same day but has reportedly occasionally been violated.