After a short period of a relative stand-down during the World Cup soccer tournament held in Russia, hostilities in Ukraine’s Donbas have flared up again, causing scores of casualties on both sides of the frontline.
During the day of June 28, four Ukrainian soldiers were killed and two more were injured in clashes with Russian-backed forces, according to a military communique issued by the Joint Operation Forces press service early on June 29.
The fresh upsurge of fighting was seen at most of the frontline’s hotspots, such as the town of Novotoshkivkse in the Luhansk Oblast, where the enemy attacked the Ukrainian troops with a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, as well as mortars and automatic grenade guns. At the so-called Svitlodarsk Bulge near the occupied town of Debaltseve, the Ukrainian troops sustained one lethal casualty and another combatant was severely wounded.
Also, one Ukrainian soldier was killed in combat near the key city of Avdiyivka, the military press service said.
Furthermore, heavy fighting was seen in the town of Pivdenne near the occupied city Horlivka, which had been retaken by Ukrainian troops in the mid-May. According to the military, as the Russian-backed forces did not cease their attempts to recapture Pivdenne, they engaged the Ukrainian troops in the morning on June 28.
At 8.30 a.m., the enemy started shelling the Ukrainian lines and civilian buildings in Pivdenne with mortars, automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns, Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade press service reported late on June 28.
Covered by the fire from heavy weapons, a hostile subversive team also approached the forwarded Ukrainian strongpoints near the town, the brigade added. During a 30-minutes-long clash with the attacking group, a 57-year-old Ukrainian squad leader Valeriy Shyshak was gravely wounded by a sniper. Another wounded Ukrainian serviceman, a 22-year-old soldier Andriy Volos, whom the squad leader Shyshak was trying to save, died shortly after, the brigade said.
Nonetheless, the assault on Pivdenne was repelled, and by 2.30 p.m. local time, the situation was stabilized.
“Given the situation in this area, the brigade command took meaningful steps in terms of firepower effect upon the occupants,” the 24th Brigade press service added.
According to the Joint Forces Operation command, the enemy lost at least 9 fighters killed and more 8 militants were wounded.
Heavy weaponry, particularly 122-millimeter howitzers and 120-millimeter mortars, was also seen engaged against the Ukrainian troops near the town of Pavlopil north of Mariupol; however, no casualties among the Ukrainian ranks in that area were reported.
A day before that, on June 27, the Donbas war front saw another upsurge of fighting near the village of Bohdanivka near the key city of Volnovakha. Three Ukrainian soldiers from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade deployed in the area were killed in artillery shelling by the enemy.
Meanwhile, later on June 27, the Triliteral Contact Group in Minsk agreed to announce a new all-out ceasefire starting from July 1st, the latest one in a series of dozens of failed attempts to put the stalemated warfare in Ukraine’s east to an end.
Darka Olifer, the press secretary of Ukraine’s envoy to the Minsk group Leonid Kuchma, wrote on her Facebook page on June 27 that the new ceasefire was agreed on the occasion of the harvest season in Ukraine.
