Russia-backed militants continued violating ceasefire on a daily basis across the entire frontline – Defense Ministry

The amount of attacks slightly increased over the last week, mostly the adversary attacks happened in the Mariupol sector.

 

“Russia-backed militants kept on violating ceasefire on a daily basis across the whole frontline,” said Vilyen Pidgornyy, Ministry of Defense spokesperson at a press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. Overall, the number of hostile attacks registered was between 35 on November 10 at the lowest point to 64 on November 12 at the highest. “Russian proxies continued to use heavy weapons banned by Minsk agreements, especially 82 and 120 mm mortars, as well as 120 and 152 mm artillery and tanks,” stated the spokesperson.

Focus of attacks
The vast majority of ceasefire violations took place in the Mariupol sector, stretching from Mariinka and Krasnohorivka all the way to Talakivka and Shyrokyne village on the Azov Sea coast.

Luhansk sector
In the Luhansk sector, the area of ceasefire violations has expanded. “Tensions persisted in the area of Stanytsia Luhanska, Shchastya, Krymske and Popasna,” said the MoD spokesperson.

 

Donetsk sector
Donetsk sector remains one of the tensest areas. Avdiivka, Horlivka perimeter and Luhanske village were all major flashpoints with militants firing from mortars and artillery throughout the week. “Two civilians were killed and four were injured last week due to hostile attacks in eastern Ukraine. Russia-backed militants used artillery to attack villages on the frontline territories.  One civilian was killed in Novhorodske village and another in Tonenke village – both in the Donetsk sector,” said Mr Pidgornyy.

Damage to the civilian infrastructure
As a result of militant attacks 23 private homes and non-residential buildings were damaged in Popasna (Luhansk sector), Toretsk and Avdiivka (Donetsk sector), and Krasnohorivka and Maryinka (Mariupol sector). In the latter two towns the buildings were caught on fire. According to Mr Pidgornyy, evidence of these gross attacks were registered by Ukrainian representatives of the Joint Center for Coordination and Control had transferred to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, as attacks on the civilian infrastructure demonstrate grave violations of Minsk accords and fundamental human rights.

Casualties and humanitarian assistance
Last week, four Ukrainian servicemen were killed in action, 19 were wounded in action. It should be noted that the total number of military casualties includes one Ukrainian serviceman killed in a booby trap explosion.

Over the week, Ukrainian authorities arranged access and safe passage through government checkpoints on the contact line of 88 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid for civilians living on the occupied areas in eastern Ukraine. Humanitarian assistance was provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as Ukrainian and foreign charity organizations.