A successful prisoner exchange under a European Union-brokered ceasefire deal was overshadowed today by the deaths of at least six people in eastern Ukraine.
Three civilians were killed when a
Russian rocket hit a café in Avdiyivka on Feb. 22, and one soldier was killed and
three wounded during 44 attacks on Ukrainian frontline positions over the
course of the day.
Although the situation was calmer
overnight, with no attacks reported between 10 p.m. on Feb. 21 and 7 a.m. on Feb. 22,
at least two more people were killed in a terrorist attack in Kharkiv on Feb.
22, according to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. An eyewitness told the Kyiv Post
he had seen three bodies.
The country’s Security Service
said it had detained four people in connection with the attack.
Russian-backed separatists also released
139 Ukrainian soldiers in a prisoner exchange for 59 insurgents, according to
Ukraine’s military spokesman Lt. Colonel Andriy Lysenko.
Nonetheless, Russia continued to violate
the Minsk agreements by supplying more military hardware to proxies in the
country.
“60 units of military equipment have
arrived at Amvrosiivka station in the Donetsk region,” Ukraine’s government said in a statement. “Two more convoys of the Russian
military equipment crossed the Ukrainian-Russian border through the “Izvaryne”
checkpoint, going toward Krasnodon and Luhansk.”
Russia also stepped up reconnaissance
flights in the Mariupol area, fulling speculation that it was preparing to
launch an offensive on the city from its positions at Novoazovsk.
Ukrainian soldiers recorded 14
UAV flights over Mariupol, Donetsk and Luhansk sectors, shooting down one in
the area of Starobilsk.
The Security Service of Ukraine, also known as the SBU, detained
another four people accused of providing information on Ukrainian troops
movements to the insurgents, one of whom was arrested by Ukrainian troops.
