The situation along the front-line is escalating; the Ukrainian army is intensifying the shelling of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) territory, a source in the Donetsk People’s Republic People’s Militia (DPR PM) informed a Rossa Primavera News Agency reporter on February 19th.
The northern and south-western suburbs of Gorlovka again came under the Ukrainian artillery fire. Ukrainian military shelled the villages of Zaytsevo and Shirokaya Balka.
On the Donetsk direction, the Ukrainian army shelled the village of Spartak and Avdeevka industrial zone. The maintenance crew, which, under the security guarantees of the Ukrainian side, was moving from Yasinovataya to the area of Donetsk water filtration plant in order to repair the power lines, came under fire. Maintenance vehicles were damaged, but the technicians were not injured.
The situation on the Mariupol direction remains tense. Yesterday, the power lines were damaged in the villages of Kominternovo and Novaya Laspa as a result of the shelling. Reconstruction works are being conducted.
Today, the details of the Ukrainian army’s attack on the positions of the Donetsk People’s Republic People’s Militia (DPR PM), which took place north of Donetsk yesterday, became known. After the heavy artillery shelling, up to 2 Ukrainian platoons moved out of the villages of Opytnoye and Peski. According to DPR PM Command, the attackers lost 2 soldiers killed and another 5 injured in combat and, then, were thrown back to their initial positions.
According to DRP People’s Militia (DPR PM) Command, during the past day, one DPR PM serviceman was injured.
DPR PM intelligence uncovered the location of up to a battery of self-propelled artillery vehicles and up to a tank platoons in the area of the village of Mariinka.
According to updated information, during the past day, February 18th, the Ukrainian army shelled the front-line territory of DPR 2,453 times. According to DPR PM Command, the increase in the intensity of the shelling may be related to the beginning of the protests in Kiev. By escalating the situation at the front, the political leadership is attempting to distract the attention from the Maidan events and to keep the volunteer nationalist battalions away from the capital.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
