Donetsk rebels say ceasefire violations have doubled
2016-03-04
Posted by: badanov
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By Chris Covert
Rantburg.com
Russian backed separatists claimed that the Ukrainian military has violated the ceasefire almost 400 times in 24 hours, according to official rebel media.
According to an announcement posted on the website of the Donetsk ministry of defense, the great bulk of the shooting has come from 120mm and 82mm mortar fire, as well as from 30mm autocannon fire from the ubiquitous BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle.
Most of the shooting has take place in western suburbs of Donetsk city and in areas around Gorlovka.
According to rebel media, Ukrainians fired their weapons on Peski, Krasnogorovka, Marinka, Opytnoye, the airport and the Volvo Center in western Donetsk city.
Official rebel media says that Ukrainian shelling struck a water treatment plant, knocking it off line for an undisclosed amount of time.
Other areas under fire north of Donetsk city include Gorlovka and Zaitsevo.
Kominternovo in the south near Mariupol came under Ukrainian fire as well, said the announcement.
According to Russian language Ukrainian media from the website censor.net.ua, rebels have fired rocket artillery onto Ukrainian positions, totaling 24 rockets, which struck between Marinka and Krasnogorovka. Residential houses also have reportedly been struck by rebel rocket artillery fire.
A regnum.ru report quoted Ukrainian military officials as saying that rebel artillery struck Ukrainian positions 62 times over 24 hours in several locations in both Donetsk and Lugansk. Rebel troops fired on Ukrainian troops 34 times using small arms fire in western Donetsk city sectors, northern areas around Gorlovka, southern areas near Mariupol and in Lugansk.
4 hour bombardment in Zaitsevo
Donetsk ministry of defense spokesman Lt. Colonel Eduard Basurin said Thursday that Ukrainian small arms fire was directed at rebel positions in Zaistevo after Ukrainian artillery fire struck rebel positions for nearly four hours the previous day.
Basurin claims that rebel troops are under "silence mode" orders not to return fire unless lives are in direct danger.
So far, no reports from the rebel side have emerged as to casualties, and Ukrainian media have yet to address the fighting there. Zaitsevo is in the same general area as Gorlovka, which itself has been under nearly continual Ukrainian artillery fire since the summer of 2014.
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.
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