The Ukrainian armed forces and groups of gunmen opposing them in eastern Ukraine have entered in armed clashes 27 times over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko says.
In particular, such skirmishes have occurred near Savur-Mohyla, Petrovske, Verhunsky Rozyizd, Blahodatne, Maryinka, Vesela Tarasivka, Krasna Poliana, Cherevkivka, Vasylivka, Kuteinykove, Trudivske, Cheliuskinets, Malomykolayivka, Avdiyivka, and Krynychna, Lysenko said at a news conference.
The Ukrainian armed forces are also fighting to take control of Donetsk, Shakhtarsk, Torez, Zuhres, Ilovaisk, and Yasynuvata in the Donetsk region and Luhansk, Alchevsk, Perevalsk, and Stanytsia Luhanska in the Luhansk oblast, he said.
“Russia continues shelling the positions of Ukrainian border forces and the counterterrorist operation forces. The Uragan powerful multiple rocket launcher system was used against our army. The Ukrainians were shelled not far from the settlement of Kuteinykove,” he said.
The gunmen’s attacks on the Ukrainian military have been looking increasingly more often like “hunting for a moving target,” Lysenko said. He said an armored personnel carrier with servicemen from the Amvrosiyivka border unit on board and an automobile carrying National Guard soldiers were attack in this very manner.
Lysenko said that the total length of the Ukrainian border shelled from Russia is around 400 kilometers, including 100 kilometers under the temporary control of terrorists and Russian hired armed persons.
