Despite a ceasefire having been declared for the umpteenth time in late December, low-level hostilities between the Ukrainian army and Russian-led forces continued through Jan. 2 in the war zone.
According to the Ukrainian military press service, there were at least 5 attacks on Ukrainian positions by Russian-led forces along the 450-kilometer front line, although unlike in previous recent clashes, Russian-led forces did not use heavy weaponry banned under the Minsk agreements over the last24 hours.
Nonetheless, Ukrainian troops came under small arms fire at several hotspots.
“The defensive positions of our forces were fired upon with various grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and small arms near the farmstead of Vilniy near the city of Stanytsya Luhanska (near occupied Luhansk) and near the village of Opytne (close to the destroyed Donetsk Airport) and at Vodayne (near the city of Mariupol,” the Joint Operative Headquarters reported early on January 3.
The military’s morning communique also reads that an enemy sniper was reported active near the village of Pisky, just east of the ruins of Donetsk Airport.
The early hours of Jan. 3 saw no hostilities.
The Joint Operative Headquarters said all Ukrainian forces deployed to the war zone were observing the cease-fire but delivering “adequate responses” to unprovoked attacks for the sake of “protecting health and safety of the Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel.”
No casualties have been reported among the Ukrainian ranks.
At the same time, according to Ukrainian intelligence reports, one enemy combatant was killed and three more injured in an alleged incident involving the mishandling of weapons, the military’s press service said.
