You're reading: Amid stalemate, Ukrainian forces slowly advance near Debaltseve

The war is back on, after a December lull, between Russian-backed forces and Ukrainian soldiers.

The Ukrainian military says the nation’s forces have been shelled at least 400 times during the last week alone. As before, the Kremlin sid uses mortars, heavy artillery and firearms. But they have mostly failed to break through Ukrainian positions. Two Ukrainian servicemen were killed and as many as 14 were wounded in action recently.

Mariupol, the western and northern suburbs of Donetsk and the Svitlodarsk remain the most dangerous war zones in the disputed Donbas.

In December and January, the Russian-sponsored forces engaged with heavy weapons banned by Minsk peace agreements for more than 700 times, Ukraine’s chief of the general staff, Viktor Muzhenko, said on Jan. 14. Alexander Hug, the OSCE special monitoring mission principal deputy chief, also confirmed that use of banned weaponry in Donbas had risen significantly.

“Comparing to the last week, our observers recorded a 250 percent increase in the use of banned kinds of weapons, in particular, tanks, mortars, artillery and multiple launching missile systems,” Hug said on Jan. 12.

Pavlopil, Vodiane, Pischevyk — on the outskirts of Mariupol, the Azov Sea port city of 500,000 people that is nearly 800 kilometers south-east of Kyiv — are where the front line is located, with scenes of bloodshed and artillery exchanges.

“Near the Azov shore, the situation remains unchanged. The militants open fire in the night and day, actively engaging heavy weaponry. In fact, every our stronghold is in the crosshairs,” Olexander Motuzianyk, a Defense Ministry representative, claimed on Jan. 19.

Clashes are almost regular along the separation line down to the abandoned city of Shyrokyne by the Azov Sea. The resort city is now a ruined and devastated battleground, suffering frequent attacks by the enemy.

“All the time they show us that Mariupol is under threat. It is a kind of social-political tension,” Major General Borys Kremenetsky told Ukrainska Pravda news website.

On Jan. 13, the Ukrainian military reported that as many as two simultaneous combat clashes between separatist sabotage groups and Ukrainian forces took place in the evening. Ukrainian forces are also reported to be conducting black operations against the enemy. In early January, three Ukrainian marine fighters went missing on the Mariupol frontline. Their bodies were returned by Russian-backed militants on Jan. 13.

Also, a Russian national fighter was taken captive amid fighting near Mariupol. During the interrogation, he admitted that, apart from Russian and Ukrainian nationals, Belarusian and Kazakh citizens were involved in militant combat units under the command of Russian active officers.

In contrast with Mariupol, the Svetlodarsk area has seen Ukraine forces slowly creeping towards militant-held Debaltseve.

“Our positions at the Svitlodarsk rim and the nearest buildings in Debaltseve are separated by only 5-6 kilometers of field and hills,” Ukrainian military volunteer Juriy Mysiahyn wrote on his Facebook page.

After heavy fighting in late December, Ukrainian forces had retaken the city of Novoluhanske, in no man’s land between the opposing troops. Since then, Ukrainian forces are defending their new positions in the area, while Russian-backed forces are constantly trying to push them back. On Jan. 11, the militant commando group made an attempt to beach the Ukrainian position at the newly retaken Novoluhanske, reportedly with no effect.

Also, Ukrainian forces say that any advances in the Svitlodarsk rim are made in full compliance with the Minsk peace agreements, which stipulate the territory should have returned to Ukrainian control in late 2014.

The humanitarian situation remains grim. “There are lots of young people leaving this region. The elder people usually stay, with virtually no support and care. Three million people are completely dependent on humanitarian aid, and 2.5 million people have left the region as refugees,” Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe chief Sebastian Kurz said in Moscow.