Artillery duels, fighting continues in Donetsk and Lugansk
2014-11-26
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the main non-government organization charged with monitoring the ceasefire in southeastern Ukraina, reported that they found a Ukrainian rocket artillery launcher unit inside the "security zone" Monday, according to a news account posted by the Russian language Ukrainian news outlet korrespondent.net.
According to a report by the official Russian news agency TASS, the OSCE observers located the launchers just outside of the city of Debalstevo Friday. They were described as BM-27 220mm "Urugan" rocket artillery launchers, among the heaviest of that type of Russian artillery launcher available.
The find is a violation of the September 5th Minsk Ceasefire Agreement which said both sides must withdraw all artillery units 100mm or larger 15 kilometers from a demarcation line set last September 19th. The reasoning behind that part of the protocol is that the requirement would eliminate all but light mortars being used inside the zone. Sometime this week both sides are supposed to withdraw all forces the same 15 kilometers from the demarcation line, and the rebel forces are supposed to disarm, an extremely unlikely eventuality at best.
Both sides have been repeatedly violating the Ceasefire Agreement , with both sides accusing the other for starting the firing and then responding.
Ukrainian artillery units have been pounding Donetsk city since last summer, presumably firing at militia targets but hitting, repeatedly, residential areas.
Donbas rebels reported their artillery hit the Ukrainian held settlements of Peski and Avdeyevka in the afternoon and evening of November 22nd.
For their part, Ukrainian artillery units hit Petrovsky, Leninsky, Kuibyshevsky and Kievsky districts of Donetsk from Peski, Avdeyevka, Tonenkoye, Orlovka and Karlovka using 152mm artillery and 122mm BM-21 rocket artillery launchers.
Rebel militias reported Ukrainian artillery strikes in the Donetsk residential areas of Putilovka, Biryuzova and Krasny Pakhar, and in the suburbs of Vesyoloye, Lidievka and Spartak.
Damage was recorded in the artillery strikes, but no one was reported hurt.
Over the weekend Donetsk city officials reported 12 wounded by artillery fire.
OSCE reported on its website that rebel artillery units also have been shelling Debaltsevo since last Thursday. The OSCE mission said a 122mm rocket artillery strike hit residential and commercial areas on November 21st at around 2239 Moscow time, and again Friday at 2230 hrs Moscow time. Both artillery strikes lasted about five minutes.
An unidentified Ukrainian commander at the army headquarters in Debaltsevo said that seven civilians were wounded in Thursday's artillery strike.
A subsequent artillery strike was reported by local security officials at around 2330 hrs, which lasted about 30 minutes. The OSCE report said the artillery came from Fashchivka (65 kilometers northeast of Donetsk), which is rebel held territory.
According to information supplied by Voice of Sevastopol, rebels reported last Friday intense attacks on Ukrainian positions in Debaltsevo with Ukrainian artillery units shelling the Lugansk settlements of Nikishino, Petropavlovka and Chernukhino from Debaltsevo.
As reported before, much of the artillery activity in Donetsk city centers around the airport, which Ukrainian units have held since last summer. Much of the airport up until the ceasefire was controlled by Ukrainian military units, but a slow motion campaign by Donbas rebels has reduced the area the Ukrainian Army controls to the new terminal.
Donbas rebels at the airport claim that the Ukrainians left last week and that the airport was fully in the hands of the rebels. The commander of the "Somali" Battalion, identified only as "Givi" gave an interview to local reporters saying the airport belonged to the militias and that the artillery being fired repeatedly there and in Donetsk city was sited "15 to 20 kilometers" away.
According to reports from commanders on the ground at the airport, and as seen in videos taken there, the Ukrainian military tried a counterattack ten days ago with four tanks and three BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles in an attempt to take the fire tower located directly next to the runway.
Donbas rebels reported driving back the attack and destroying two BMPs and one tank. The video shows Donbas rebel riflemen using WWII vintage PTRD antitank rifles to engage the Ukrainian T-64 tanks used to attack their positions.
At the moment, according to the pro rebel Voice of Sevastopol, the Ukrainian military still holds on to the new terminal and is continually rotating soldiers in and out of the location using armored vehicles.
A report posted on korrespondent.net said that 44 fighters from the Ukrainian 95th Airmobile Brigade were placed on 24 day leave, and would return to the airport. The 95th Airmobile Brigade is one of several Ukrainian Army units heavily battered in the summer's fighting in Donetsk and Lugansk oblasts.
Voice of Sevastopol reports that some elements of the Ukrainian 79th separate Airmobile Brigade left the airport for Nikolayev on Friday.
Fighting in Lugansk
Friday Ukrainian artillery units hit Stakhanov and Pervomaysk with 122mm rocket artillery throughout the day, and fighting was reported in Faschevka.
Infantry fights and artillery strikes were recorded all along the T1301 highway just south of the Northern Donetsk River, particularly at the Ukrainian held Checkpoint 31.
Rebels report as of November 23rd, the Ukrainian held bridgehead at Schastye is partially encircled form the north, northeast and east, which if true, with the river at its back leaves Schastye fully invested by rebel combat units. Rebel reports are that they have been shelling the city with artillery rockets and mortars.
Northeast of Lugansk city, rebel units reported attacking Ukrainian positions at Stanitsa Luganskaya and at Verkhnyaya Olkhovaya. Earlier last week, rebel units said one of their attacks drove Ukrainian units deeper into Stanitsa Luganskaya, and now the fighting between the two combatants is nearly constant.
According to a rebel report: "On November 22 there were alarming reports about shelling of the outskirts of Lugansk by Kiev security forces with SPG (73mm recoilless rifle), AA guns (probably twin 23mm autocannons) and tank shells from the positions of the Ukrainian military near Stanitsa Luganskaya.
Chris Covert writes about foreign military issues for Rantburg.com. He can be reached at grurkka@gmail.com. You can read past articles about the 2014 war in southeastern Ukraina by clicking here.
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