Two Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and three have been wounded in the Donbas war zone, according to the Joint Forces Operation.
One soldier was killed by Kremlin-backed militants near the village of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast on Feb. 22. Another soldier was wounded that day and is currently in a hospital.
The pro-Russian forces reportedly used grenade launchers and various small arms in the attack, repeatedly violating the ceasefire that began in July 2020.
One day later, on the morning of Feb. 23, Russian-backed militants killed another Ukrainian soldier and wounded two in the village of Zaitseve in Donetsk Oblast.
On Feb. 22-23, Kremlin-backed forces violated the ceasefire 11 times. Ukrainian soldiers fired back in response.
The Ukrainian side has informed representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) about the ceasefire violations.
Ruslan Khomchak, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that the situation was still under control, despite the provocations, according to news website Ukrainska Pravda.
At least 13 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war with Russia-led militants since the ceasefire started on July 27, 2020.
Apart from the combat-related fatalities, there’s a huge number of non-combat losses in the front line. In particular, five servicemen were killed in landmine blast incidents in February alone. On Feb. 20, a dugout caught fire, killing three soldiers. One of them died in the hospital, and the remains of the other two were found only two days later. The military law enforcement is currently investigating the incidents.
More than 14,000 people have been killed during the war in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed forces and the Ukrainian military since 2014, when Russia invaded eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
