The number of attacks against Ukrainian troops decreased radically since cease-fire took effect at midnight, but the situation remains tense around Debaltveve, Ukraine's officials said on Feb. 15.
Attacks from Russian-backed insurgents continued until midnight, and then regular shelling attacks stopped,
except in Debaltseve, according to government military spokesman Andriy Lysenko. Debaltseve is a strategic railway junction
on the border of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which has been the site
of heavy fighting for weeks.
A Kyiv Post reporter on the ground
observed fire from both sides close to Debaltseve, with no sign of
cease-fire.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo
Klimkin said that OSCE’s Monitoring Mission was prevented by the
separatists from getting close to Debaltseve to observe the
situation. Klimkin said this was a “direct violation of the Minsk
agreement” achieved on Feb. 12.
“I think that those who interfere
with the work of the mission have to carry political and moral
responsibility,” he said at a briefing in Kyiv. Klimkin said the
Russian authorities failed to stick to the Minsk agreements.
“It’s not about holding elections,
it’s about 10,000 Russian militants acting on territory of eastern
Ukraine,” he said.
Reports in social media suggested that
cease-fire was also largely holding in much of Luhansk Oblast.
Insurgents used mortars near Zolote and Luhanske in Luhansk Oblast.
They also fired from assault rifles and grenade launchers, attacking
Chornukhine and Sanzharivka, according to Anatoliy Stelmakh, a government military spokesperson. He told a news briefing that “overall,
pro-Russian militants attacked the Ukrainian Armed Forces 10 times”
by mid-morning.
Lysenko said that mortar attacks of
Zolote, Chornukhine villages killed four civilians over the past 24
hours.
In the meantime, the Azov Battalion,
which is stationed close to the city of Mariupol in the south of
Donetsk Oblast, said in its statement that the insurgents attempted
to move new armored personnel vehicles to the town to Shyrokyne,
“using the cease-fire regime and favorable weather conditions.
There is heavy fog on the coast of the Azov Sea.”
Shyrokyne was recaptured by the
Ukrainian troops ahead of cease-fire, and Azov battalion said they
were still holding the town, despite fighting. They said separatists
retreated after suffering casualties.
Lysenko said that nine Ukrainian
soldiers were also killed in the past 24 hours, and 39 injured. But
no casualties have been reported since the beginning of cease-fire.
He also said that Ukraine was ready to pull back its artillery, as
per the Feb. 12 Minsk agreement.
