Two male civilians were wounded in the frontline city of Avdiyivka some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv amid shelling with 82 millimeter mortars by Russian-backed forces, Ukraine’s delegation to the Joint Coordination and Control Center or JCCC, a military liaison body, reported late on July 18.
Meanwhile, two Ukrainian servicemen were killed in combat clashes overnight into July 19, and four more were wounded, Ukraine’s military press center reported.
The mortar shells in Avdiyivka impacted at 8 p.m. in the private housing sector, damaging one house and exploding in a neighboring garden.
Brothers Oleksandr and Yuriy Mezentsev, who were returning to the house from the backyard, suffered light injuries.
“The (injured) witnesses say they have no doubt about where the shelling came from,” Ukraine’s military reported. “The shell fragment traces are easily visible on the damaged house, (and) the trajectory points to militant positions.”
The brothers received treatment at the local hospital and were released, both in a satisfactory condition.
Elsewhere, residential blocks in the town of Zaitseve that straddle the front line were targeted by cannon fire from an infantry fighting vehicle, the JCCC said. The incident happened as Russian-backed forces attacked Ukrainian forces defending the town.
By the evening on July 18, the situation along the front line had seriously deteriorated, according to the Ukraine’s military press center communique.
At approximately at 1 a.m., Russian-backed forces directed small-arms fire and grenade launchers against Ukrainian positions at the Butivka mine, about two kilometers southwest of Avdiyivka. They also shelled other Ukrainian defensive positions south of the city with 82 millimeter mortars.
At least five mortar shells were also fired at Ukrainian troops in the town of Pisky, to the northeast of occupied Donetsk, injuring two soldiers. There were also two attacks involving tanks on Ukrainian positions near the city of Krasnohorivka,
In addition, in Luhansk Oblast there were heavy clashes in Stanytsya Luhanska, the Ukrainian military said.
