LUGANSK, April 1. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces have violated the ceasefire agreed on by members of the Contact Group. According to the people’s militia of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), the Ukrainian military shelled the area close to the village of Kalinovka.

"The first attack recorded on April 1 occurred at 1.20am, with the Ukrainian military shelling the area close to the village of Kalinovka," the Luganskinformtsentr news agency quotes a source the LPR people’s militia as saying.

Meanwhile, the LPR Defense Ministry reported that the ceasefire had been violated 14 times over the past 24 hours. "The Ukrainian army shelled districts of Pervomaisk, urban-type settlements of Slavyanoserbsk, Frunze and Donetsky, the villages of Kalinovo, Kalinovka, Lozovoye, Logvinovo, Sokoloniki and Annovka using 122mm artillery pieces, 120mm and 82mm mortars, infantry combat vehicles, air defense systems, tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns, automatic grenade launchers and small arms," the ministry said.

Members of the Contact Group on the settlement in eastern Ukraine have said more than ten times since the autumn of 2014 that an agreement had been reached on the cessation of hostilities in the region. However, the ceasefire was disrupted on numerous occasions, with the parties to the conflict accusing each other of violating the truce. At a meeting on March 29, the parties once again agreed on a ceasefire in the Donbass region as of April 1. They also discussed disengagement of manpower and materiel near Stanitsa Luganskaya, which was on the list of the first three security zones. Another attempt to set it up is to be made on April 6.