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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Media: Kiev forces start shelling Donetsk airport

A group of thirty journalists are in the airport’s territory at the moment

Donetsk airport Nikolai Muravyev/TASS

Donetsk airport

© Nikolai Muravyev/TASS

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MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. Ukrainian armed forces have started shelling the territory of the Donetsk airport, reports the Donetsk News Agency.

"The deputy commander of the Defense Ministry’s corps (of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic) Eduard Basurin and a group of thirty journalists are in the airport’s territory at the moment. Militias present at the site said the shelling was carried out from the villages of Opytnoye and Vodino," the agency said.

Last Thursday, February 12 the Belarussian capital Minsk hosted hours-long overnight talks by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Also, there was a meeting of the Contact Group for Ukraine.

The meetings produced a package of measures to implement the Minsk Accords, such as a ceasefire in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions starting from February 15, pullback of heavy armaments and measures for a long-term political settlement of the situation in Ukraine.

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Eastern Ukraine

Middle East conflict

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