Two members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been killed and two wounded in the past day as a result of hostilities in Donbas, the speaker for the Defense Minister Oleksandr Motuzianyk has said.
“Two of our soldiers have been killed and two injured as a result of fighting,” he said during a briefing in Kyiv on Dec. 29.
The vicinity of Krymske, where the separatists used armored vehicles and machineguns, was the flashpoint in the Luhansk sector, Motuzianyk said, adding that provocations were also observed in the Stanytsia Luhanska area.
In all, the ceasefire was breached six times in the Luhansk sector over the past day, he said.
In the Donetsk sector, militants attacked Ukrainian army positions all along the frontline, and the only calm sector was the Donetsk airport. Shelling incidents have been ongoing on the Svitlodarsk bulge, where the total duration of hostile fire approached six hours and 50 mortar mines were fired, Motuzianyk said. Small arms and grenade launchers were fired near Horlivka, and an assault was attempted near Kruta Balka, where hostiles retreated after a 30-minute clash, he said.
In all, 15 violations of the ceasefire were seen in the Donetsk sector over the past day, including three instances of use of heavy weapons, he said.
Two-thirds of attacks launched in the Mariupol sector occurred in the Pavlopil-Shyrokyne area, where separatists were employing heavy weapons only, he said. Besides, armed provocations were observed in Maryinka, Krasnohorivka and Novotroyitske, he said.
Twenty-nine attacks by the hostiles were seen in that area during the day, Motuzianyk said.
