Russian-separatist forces are using “scorched earth” tactics, firing 150 mortar rounds on the towns of Zaitseve and Mayorsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s military reported on Feb. 4 on its Facebook page.
Using 120- and 82-millimeter caliber mortar shells, the
Russian-backed occupying forces started shelling Zaitseve – located 17
kilometers north of occupied Horlivka and 729 kilometers east of Kyiv –after
Ukraine’s military closed the checkpoint through the city 48 hours ago due to a
spike in fighting last month.
“Instead of a cease-fire and creating safe conditions for
the resumption of the exit-entry checkpoint,” Russian-separatist forces
“decided to wipe out the entire town” of Zaitseve,” the military press service
said.
Altogether, Kremlin-backed forces attacked Ukrainian positions
on 55 occasions along the entire 500-kilometer (300-mile) front line, Ukraine’s
Defense Ministry reported on the morning of Feb. 4. The upsurge in fighting
started in late December when Russian-separatists seized the town of
Kominternove in the buffer zone east of the Azov Sea coastal city of Mariupol.
From there they launched Grad multiple rockets on Ukrainian positions.
Civilians queue at the Zaitseve checkpoint in Donetsk Oblast on Oct. 23, located 17 kilometers north of occupied Horlivka and 730 kilometers east of Kyiv. (Anastasia Vlasova)
Mortar rockets of 82- and 120-millimeter caliber have also
been regularly used – a clear breach of the agreement on the withdrawal of
heavy weapons included in the Minsk II peace agreement of February 2015.
Ukraine suffered its first military casualties in three
weeks on Jan. 31 when two soldiers were killed near occupied Horlivka. Seven
soldiers have been wounded since that day. Almost 9,100 people have been killed
and over 20,000 wounded in Russia’s war against Ukraine since April 2014,
according to the United Nations.
This week, Ukraine’s Social Ministry said there were 1.7
million internally displaced people registered as of Jan. 29. The UN says an
additional 600,000 people have fled abroad, the majority of whom to Russia.
Two cease-fire agreements brokered in the Belarussian
capital of Minsk have failed to take hold. The second ceasefire, which was
supposed to have started at midnight on Feb. 15, 2015, was broken within hours.
Russian-backed armed groups, and, according to Kyiv, Russian regular troops, on
Feb. 18 went on to capture the Ukrainian-held towns of Debaltseve and
Vuhlehirsk in Donetsk Oblast – both strategic rail hubs.
