Two Ukrainian military servicemen were killed in action on the night of Oct. 30 in the Donbas, increasing the confirmed Ukrainian combat-related death toll to three amid yet another phantom ceasefire that’s been in force since late July.
According to Ukraine’s military, the incident occurred at 12:38 a.m. local time near the frontline town of Vodyane, 23 kilometers northeast of the key Azov Sea port of Mariupol. Russian-backed militants opened fire from small arms and grenade launchers against the Ukrainian lines, inflicting fatal injuries upon two Ukrainian warfighters.
“(Ukraine’s) Joint Forces formations offered an appropriate reaction to the enemy’s provocations and forced the Russian occupation troops to get back to observing the ceasefire,” Marianna Markevych, a spokesperson of the Joint Forces Operation, said in a video address on Oct. 30.
This has been the worst armistice violation by Russian-backed militants throughout the 3-month-long general ceasefire that stays in force since July 27, despite regular armed clashes between the warring parties.
The affected frontline section is currently defended by Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade formations. The killed marines were later in the day identified as non-commissioned officers: Sergeant Volodymyr Bondariuk and Senior Sergeant Mykhailo Starostin.
Furthermore, according to military dispatches, two more Ukrainian soldiers have been wounded on the night of Oct. 30 in armed clashes with the enemy. In general, the military has reported at least five ceasefire violations in the last 24 hours.
Two Ukrainian marines Sergeant Volodymyr Bondariuk and Senior Sergeant Mykhailo Starostin killed in action on the night of Oct. 30 in the Donbas. (36th Marine Brigade (Ukraine) )
Another combat-related casualty amount Ukrainian ranks was confirmed on Sept. 6, when soldier Taras Kubiyovych was killed in action near the frontline town of Prychepylivka in Luhansk Oblast.
Nonetheless, the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky, despite regular reports of low-intensity hostilities, continues calling it the longest and most stable ceasefire throughout Russia’s war against Ukraine, which started in April 2014.
As recently as on Oct. 20, Zelensky asserted that the ceasefire advocated by him had been continuing for over 80 days.
“Is (the ceasefire) ideal? No,” he said. “Are there any violations? Yes. Are there attempts to break it up? For sure. But it needs to be admitted that the intensity of hostilities has decreased drastically.”
Because of the two deaths on Oct. 30, Ukraine’s party to the Minsk peace talks has initiated an emergency meeting with envoys of Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Representatives of Ukraine in the peace talks, however, still consider the Donbas ceasefire successful.
“One can’t say that the state of silence has been violated,” Oleksiy Arestovych, the recently-appointed spokesman for the Minsk negotiations group, said on Oct. 30. “The current status of what has happened is the following: sporadic violations that unfortunately led to grave consequences.”
