MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. Kiev is boosting forces and military equipment near the contact line in the Mariupol direction, in southern Ukraine, defense ministry spokesman of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said on Tuesday.

"Up to 1,000 Ukraine’s Armed Forces personnel have been massed in the Mariupol direction in the village of Andreyevka and Granitnoye. A tank battalion was spotted near the Zamozhnoye settlement," Basurin said.

A Marine brigade estimated at up to 2,000 people was seen near the villages of Lebedinskoye, Shirokino and Kominternovo.

The positions of Ukraine’s self-propelled artillery weapons have been discovered in four villages near the contact line, he added.