| Ukrainians, rebels continue to exchange artillery fire 2016-04-03 by: badanov For a map, click here. You can enlarge the map, if you open it separately. Ukrainian forces continue to exchange artillery fire with rebel forces along the line of contact, specifically in southern Donetsk and in western areas near Donetsk city, according to Russian language news reports. A news report which appeared in lb.ua said that rebel forces fired artillery on their positions 65 times on Friday. Localities west of Donetsk city hit by the rebels include Marinka, Peski, Avdievka and Zaytsevo. Rebels used small arms and RPG fire on Ukrainian positions. On Saturday, according to a separate lb.ua report, rebels fired on Ukrainian positions a total of 36 times. Localities hit by rebel fire include Staraya Avdievka (industrial zone), and Peski. Six Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the last two days. According to the Donetsk ministry of defense website news release, Ukrainian forces violated the ceasefire a total of 36 times, firing 252 times on rebel positions in Donetsk. Among the localities hit were Yasinovataya, Spartak, Petrovsky district, Zhabichevo and the Donetsk airport. The rebel report said that Petrovsky district was hit by Ukrainian artillery for 38 minutes Friday night. A separate report said that Ukrainian 30mm autocannon fire and RPGs were fired into the area as well. Another rebel report said that Zaytsevo was hit by mortar fire for 60 minutes. Localities in southern Donetsk hit by Ukrainian artillery include Sahanka, Kominternovo and Dokuchaevsk. A separate rebel report said that Sahanka was fired on by 82mm mortar fire for 53 minutes. Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com and on Twitter. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraine by clicking here. -----------------------------------------COMMENTS---------------------------------------- |