The situation in Donbas deteriorated overnight on Jan. 23 as Russian-separatist forces used weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreement, Ukrainian authorities reported.
The number of attacks increased to at least 37 in the past 24 hours, leaving one Ukrainian solider killed and another wounded.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry informed international monitors with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that armed fighters had used Grad missile launchers and self-propelled guns when firing at Ukrainian positions near Bulavynske and Donetsk.
Earlier, OSCE monitors reported that some three self-propelled howitzers were spotted near the Russian-separatist controlled town of Yurivka in Luhansk Oblast. In total, more than 9,100 people have been killed in Donbas in the 21 months since the outbreak of hostilities in April 2014, United Nations estimates.
Russian-separatist forces attacked Ukrainian positions in Pisky, Opytne and near Donetsk Airport using grenade launchers, according to Andriy Lysenko, the presidential administration’s spokesman for war-related matters. The ceasefire was also violated in Donetsk Oblast’s Maryinka, Mayorsk and Zaitseve.
A buildup of Russian troops along the Ukrainian border also increased over the last few weeks, according to Vitaliy Malikov, who heads the Anti-Terrorism Center of Ukraine’s Security Service.
According to Malikov, there are at least 8,500 forces along the border, but the number is “constantly changing.”
“The Russians have been forming paramilitary groups there, like the military units of the Russian army. They already assigned curators to all the units, almost all the commanders there are Russians,” Malikov was quoted as saying by the Dzerkalo Tyzhnya (Mirrow Weekly) newspaper.
Meanwhile, an international mission to assess the stabilization of war-torn Donbas began its work on Jan. 23.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected].
