Over the past 24 hours, the enemy violated the effective ceasefire eight times, having fired 52 mortar shells of 120 mm caliber and 23 grenades, spokesman for the DPR PMD Pavel Fomenko reported at the briefing in Donetsk on December 29.
“All the attacks were launched by enemy units directly from populated localities. Ukrainian militants cynically use the civilian population as a human shield, deploying mortar crews in the yards of residential areas of Vodyanoye, Maryinka, and Shumy, and opening provocative fire.
In turn, the military of the People’s Militia did not open fire in return to save the lives and health of people living in the AFU-controlled localities,” Fomenko noted.
- At the Gorlovka front, militants from the 35th AFU brigade’s 503rd marine battalion, in violation of Clause 2 of the Additional Measures, opened fire three times on the village of Gagarin Mine (Gorlovka) from positions in the vicinity of Shumy, having fired ten 120 mm mortar shells and eight SPG rounds at residential neighborhoods.
In addition, in violation of Clause 1 of the Additional Measures, our observers saw the enemy conducting engineer work near Zhovanka, during which one explosion was registered.
- At the Donetsk front, militants from the 28th AFU brigade, who arrived for rotation, fulfilled the criminal order from brigade commander Marchenko and attacked the village of Trudovskaya Mine, having fired 15 grenades. A separate house at Raborovskogo Street 1 was damaged by the attack. Fortunately, none of the local residents were injured.
- At the Mariupol front, militants from the 36th AFU brigade’s marine battalion opened fire three times with 120 mm mortars on the Leninskoye and Novaya Tavriya areas, having fired 42 shells from disguised positions near Vodyanoye.
Since the beginning of the current 24-hour period, militants from the 36th AFU brigade’s marine battalion have continued to carry out engineer work in the Vodyanoye area, during which an explosion in the ground was registered. Also, engineer work was registered at positions of the 72 AFU brigade’s 1st battalion in the Verkhnetoretskoye area.
“Representatives of the Ukrainian party to the JCCC were notified of all the facts to exclude the possibility of falsifying data on ceasefire violations by Ukrainian militants and to take action against the violators.
We call on international observers to force the Ukrainian military and political leadership to comply with the Minsk Agreements, and demand in writing that the Ukrainian side conduct comprehensive investigations into the cases of firing in order to prosecute commander of the 36th separate marine brigade Gnatov and commander of the 28th separate mechanized brigade Marchenko.
We believe that the escalation of the situation at the line of contact stems from the inability of acting commander of the Joint Forces Operation Ganashchuk to exercise control over the actions of commanders of forces and units of the Vostok Operational Command. As the result, the connivance and lack of control over subordinates in the ranks of the armed forces is becoming more widespread,” the spokesman for the DPR PMD added.
