After over 40 days of a fragile ceasefire with Russian-backed militants, Ukrainian forces reported the first combat-related casualty in the war zone of Donbas.
Late on Sept. 6, Ukraine’s Joint Forces command said the militants had “opened fire against (the Ukrainian lines) with firearms near (the town of) Prychepylovka, which is in Luhansk Oblast.
“Unfortunately, a serviceman with Ukraine’s Armed Forces was fatally injured… In response to the assault, the Joint Forces formations gave (the enemy) a decent response.”
The killing ended the unprecedentedly long period of no combat casualties, which has lasted since the declaration of yet another ceasefire in Donbas on July 27. However, it doesn’t end the ceasefire, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
Later in the day, the killed soldier was identified as Junior Sergeant Taras Kubiovych of the 14th Mechanized Infantry Brigade.
“Most regrettably, the war claims the best sons of Ukraine,” said Mykhailo Chovganiuk, a local veteran community leader in Kubiovych’s home region, as he revealed the killed soldier’s identity. “Taras had been called to active duty several times. He defended his motherland with weapons in his hands and now he has joined the heavenly legion.”
Shortly after the report, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov but the contents of the conversation weren’t made public.
The Presidential Office reacted on the following day. It issued a statement saying that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was “extremely concerned about the provoking assaults and the escalated situation” in Donbas.
“The president once again insists on the fact that Ukraine is not going to give up seeking peace and is fulfilling all of its obligations,” the administration’s press service said on Sept. 7. “However, if necessary, the Ukrainian military is going to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity (of Ukraine) and the lives of Ukrainian citizens by giving a timely and resolve reaction to the enemy’s activity.”
The Presidential Office added that despite the fatality in Donbas, the Minsk negotiations group continued its talks.
The Ukrainian military reported only one incident of ceasefire violation in Donbas overnight into Sept. 7.
Earlier on Sept. 6, the military also said two soldiers had been killed in the war zone near the town of Verkhniotoretske, also in Luhansk Oblast. However, as the command noted that the servicemen had gone missing amid a heavy wildfire in the zone and were later found dead some 400 meters deep in the no-man’s land between the lines.
According to the military, the soldiers stuck landmines as they tried to bypass the wildfire.
The confirmed combat-related casualty on Sept. 6 effectively terminated the unprecedentedly long period of no loss of soldier lives, which continued since the declaration of yet another ceasefire in Donbas on July 27.
Some of the new ceasefire’s provisions raised alarms in Ukraine regarding the deal’s formal ban on opening fire in response to enemy attacks unless after a direct order from the top command.
A Ukrainian soldier man a foxhole in the war zone near the city of Avdiyivka in Donbas on Nov. 28, 2019. (AFP)
In numerous statements, Zelensky’s administration advocated the controversial armistice, saying that the deal bargained during Minsk negotiations helped get rid of combat-related casualties in Ukrainian ranks.
The military command, as well as international monitors, reported a drastic decrease in the intensity of the grueling trench warfare between the Ukrainian army and Russian-sponsored militant formations.
In early September, however, the situation escalated as the militants accused the Ukrainian military of ceasefire violations. In particular, on Sept. 5, the chieftain of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” Denys Pushilin asserted that he had ordered that militant forces in two days, early on Sept. 7, carry out an artillery strike upon recently-reinforced Ukrainian defenses near the Russian-occupied city of Horlivka
The terrorist demanded that Ukrainian troops leave the targeted area before the shelling in order to avoid casualties. The Ukrainian command strongly declined the ultimatum, and early on September 7, no artillery attack was initiated against the mentioned area, which was also confirmed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Ukraine’s 503rd Marine Battalion responsible for the frontline section published on its Facebook page an improvised video in which soldiers mockingly decrying Pushilin for making them, as well as TV journalists embedded to the unit, wake up too early in the morning due to the expected attack.
The video, however, was deleted from the formation’s page.
