The latest attempt to halt the fighting in Ukraine collapsed within hours, with two Ukrainian soldiers killed over the weekend and Ukraine’s military even warning of a possible escalation in the Donbas fighting.
Six Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in fighting over the past weekend, according to Ukrainian military press center reports as of noon on June 26. The two soldiers who died were killed by a landmine, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on June 25.
The cease-fire, the 15th called since the spring of 2014, was agreed at a recent Trilateral Contact Group meeting on June 21 in Minsk. Both sides said they would silence their guns from midnight on June 24 until August 31, as the harvesting season in the region got underway.
But the cease-fire never took hold on June 24, with the Ukrainian military first reporting assaults on its positions by Russian-backed forces in Luhansk Oblast.
“The militants actively engaged heavy weaponry there,” Ukrainian Ministry of Defense spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on June 24 during a news briefing in Kyiv. “The total number of projectiles fired by the militants against our positions in the area exceeded 200.”
As many as 60 mortar rounds were fired in just 30 minutes at Ukrainian forces near the village of Krymske in Luhansk Oblast, Motuzyanyk said. Army combat units were also repeatedly shelled with heavy artillery, he added.
Less intense shelling and short firearms clashes were later reported at other Donbas hotspots in Donetsk Oblast, including in the front-line city of Avdiyivka and the area northeast of Mariupol.
Meanwhile, on the first day of the failed “harvest cease-fire,” on June 24, an enemy sabotage group was engaged and captured by Ukrainian combat units, according to a spot report published by Ukraine’s military press service on June 25.
The incident happened in Luhansk Oblast, military spokesperson Anton Myronovych told the Kyiv Post. After a firefight, four militants were taken alive, while two others, including the squad’s commander, were killed.
“It’s important to note that the dead commander was a Russian citizen, originally from the city of Kirov,” the press center said on June 25. “There was another Russian national among the prisoners, from the Altai Krai region.”
Searching the enemy prisoners, Ukrainian soldiers found two Kalashnikov machine guns, two SVD sniper rifles, two AK-74 assault rifles, and an RPG-26 grenade launcher, the press service reported.
The prisoners were handed over to Ukraine’s military prosecutors for further investigations, Myronovych told the Kyiv Post on June 26.
Following the incident, Ukrainian military officers delegated to the Joint Coordination and Control Center (JCCC), a military liaison body, warned of a possible escalation of the fighting by Russian-backed forces in the Luhansk Oblast, which could, they said, result in the significant escalation in hostilities throughout the Donbas.
“Ukraine’s delegation to the JCCC also warns that the illegal forces of the occupied districts of Luhansk Oblast could resort to serious provocations, even terror attacks against civilians, in order to incriminate and condemn Ukraine’s armed forces, and to cause the harvest season cease-fire to fail,” Ukraine’s military press center said on the evening of June 25.
As of the morning of June 26, Russian-backed forces continue violating the cease-fire, sporadically firing mortars of various calibers, Ukraine’s military said in a statement released at noon.
“Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian defenders have been subjected to 23 shelling attacks by Russian occupation forces… Since last morning, a relative stabilization has been observed only in the Mariupol area. The most intensive shelling, including firing from heavy artillery, took place in Luhansk Oblast.”
