Over the past day, Russia-backed separatists have opened fire on positions of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) 42 times, 11 of them – with the usage of mortars banned by the Minsk agreements with no casualties reported among the Ukrainian military, the operation’s press center has said.
“The situation in the JFO area remained difficult. The intensity of hostilities at the contact line decreased. Our troops were actively defending themselves and gave an adequate response to separatists,” the JFO press center said on Facebook in its update as of 7:00 a.m. of May 15.
Russia-backed separatists opened fire near the town of Zolote, and the villages of Novozvanivka and Troyitske (Luhansk region), the villages of Zalizne and Novhorodske, and Butovka coal mine (Donetsk region).
“The efforts of the Russian-led forces were in vain. The defensive lines of the Ukrainian units remained unchanged,” the press center noted.
Over the past day, there are no killed or wounded Ukrainian soldiers. According to Ukrainian intelligence, one Russian-backed separatist was killed and three another were wounded.
“Over the past 24 hours, seven cases of opening fire with the usage of small arms on our positions by separatists were recorded with the aim of provoking a retaliatory fire,” the report says.
