You're reading: With 7 dead, Ukraine’s army suffers bloodiest days of fighting in months

As Ukraine celebrated the abolishing of its visa regime with the European Union on June 11, the war in the country’s eastern Donbas region sharply increased in intensity.

Seven Ukrainian soldiers were killed over a period of three days. Four were killed and 14 more reported wounded over the weekend of June 10-11, with the heaviest bloodshed occurring overnight into June 11. Another two soldiers were killed before dawn on June 12, and one after daybreak, the military reported.

At least two civilians were injured by enemy fire over the period as well.

The army’s death toll over the last three days is the highest since the deadly upsurge of fighting for the front-line city of Avdiyivka near the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in late January-early February 2017.

Ukraine’s military said particularly heavy shelling of its positions started late on June 9 in front-line areas northeast and east of the port city of Mariupol, in the south of Donetsk Oblast. Russian-backed forces were reported to be shelling Ukrainian positions near the towns of Lebedynske, Pavlopil, Shyrokyne, and Talakivka with high-caliber 120-millimeter mortars and automatic grenade launchers.

The enemy’s infantry fighting vehicles were reported to have attacked the town of Luhanske in the Svitlodarsk bulge, a Ukrainian-held salient near the occupied town of Debaltseve.

Civilians in front-line cities are still falling victim to enemy artillery fire. At midnight on June 10, the city of Maryinka just west of occupied Donetsk was shelled, and two civilians were reported to have been hospitalized with shrapnel injuries. Two hours later, Russian-backed forces fired up to 14 rounds of 122-millimeter artillery at Krasnohorivka, another heavily damaged Ukrainian-controlled city in the suburbs of occupied Donetsk. No casualties were reported.

Sporadic mortar and artillery fire continued along much of the frontline on June 10, wounding two more Ukrainian soldiers before sunset. Ukraine’s military press service also reported on the evening of June 10 that the enemy fired multiple rocket launcher systems at least twice near the village of Chemalyk north of Mariupol.

A private soldier, Ilya Kyrychenko, was killed in a surprise mortar attack at 21.30 on June 10, in violation of a local ceasefire previously requested by Russian-backed forces, the press service of Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade reported on its Facebook page on June 11.

On the eve of the introduction of the visa-free a regime to the Schengen Area for Ukrainians on June 11, fierce fighting broke out at many of the war’s hotspots. Ukrainian combat units defending Avdiyivka, Pavlopil and Krasnohorivka were shelled with 82- and 120-millimeter mortars, and with 122- and 152-millimeter artillery.

There was intense nighttime combat near Krymske, an area that last week saw the Ukrainian army first advance towards enemy trenches at the village of Zhelobok, and then repel several counter attacks.

Ukraine’s press center said that overnight into June 11 Russian-backed forces launched large-scale artillery and mortar attacks on 93rd brigade positions along the P-66 road south of Krymske. After an artillery barrage, Russian-backed forces deployed a composite armored group of two main battle tanks, six infantry fighting vehicles, and several cars.

In fighting overnight into June 11, three Ukrainian servicemen were killed and another seven wounded, the military said. The Ukrainian military press center said the three Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in a single direct hit on their position by a mortar round.

The daytime of June 11 passed with no casualties, although the enemy fired tank shells at Avdiyivka and the was an intense barrage of mortar shelling near Krymske. But in fighting overnight into June 12 two more Ukrainian soldiers were killed and four injured, the military press service reported June 12 morning.

And the military reported that it had suffered more casualties on June 12 after daybreak.

“Today we’ve already had casualties again: one soldier was killed and four have been injured,” Andriy Lysenko, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense spokesman said during a briefing in Kyiv at noon on June 12.

“There are losses of combat vehicles as well,” Lysenko said.