Kremlin-backed separatists have attacked Ukrainian army positions 67 times in the past 24 hours in a war zone in eastern Ukraine. One Ukrainian serviceman was killed, three more – injured, according to the press service of Ukraine’s military headquarters.
“The enemy intensified shelling at twilight,” says the statement of Ukraine’s military press service issued on June 17. “Militants used weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements in almost one-third of shelling cases.”
The separatists shelled Ukrainian forces with 120 millimeters and 82 millimeters mortals in Mariupol Oblast. In Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, they used tanks, grenade launchers, infantry weapons, and small arms.
But the war has taken not only soldiers’ lives. According to the latest report by the special monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), only since the beginning of 2017, 47 civilians have been killed and 222 people injured in the war-torn Donbas. Most of them are victims of shellings from proscribed weapons in populated areas.
OSCE also says that intensified shellings left citizens of the small town of Vasylivka in Donetsk Oblast without water for two times within last four days.
United Nations Children’s Fund claims that around 400,000 people, including 104,000 children, had no access to any water supplies because of the damage caused to the local water purification plant.
“When water supplying objects are anyhow damaged, all parties have to create conditions for their immediate repair and stop bombarding of critical infrastructure,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF regional director for Central and Eastern Europe.
Overall, since the Russian military intervention started in Ukraine, more than 2,700 Ukrainian soldiers and representatives of other law enforcement and security bodies have been killed, and more than 9,800 wounded.
