Intense clash between Ukrainian Army and militants occurred in Donetsk sector – Defence Ministry

Russia-backed militants refused to guarantee safety for construction workers on a mission to fix infrastructure facilities in the frontline areas, reported Ukrainian representatives of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination. “This includes restoring water and power supply to Avdiivka Cox Plant, de-mining areas near Bakhmut Agrarian Union, repairing Novhorodske phenol plant and gas distribution station in Krasnohorivka, so that gas supply could be restored to dozens of thousands of private households in the region”, explained Vilyen Pidgornyy, MOD Spokesperson at a press-briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

At the same time, Russia-backed militants kept on violating ceasefire on a daily basis across the whole frontline. “Overall, the number of hostile attacks registered was between 34 on October 25 at the lowest point to 72 on October 26 at the highest”, Mr Pidgornyy stated. Six incidents with hostile drones were detected.

According to MoD Spokesperson, most intense clash between Ukrainian Army and Russia-backed militants occurred in the industrial area of Avdiivka, Donetsk sector, on October 27. “Russian military command had two goals – to capture a larger foothold in Avdiivka and to motivate the militants by artificially escalating the conflict. First, Russian proxies opened fire from heavy mortars at Ukrainian positions in Avdiivka, Opytne village and Shakhta Butovka military position. Soon it turned out to be a distraction to hide a real goal of capturing positions in the industrial area of Avdiivka”, he elaborated. Several hundreds of militants, artillery batteries and drones were engaged in the offensive. According to Mr Pidgornyy, after heavy artillery shelling, Russian proxy forces tried to assault the position. Ukrainian troops fought away the enemy offensive.

The vast majority of ceasefire violations also took place in the Mariupol sector, stretching from Maryinka and Krasnohorivka all the way to Talakivka and Shyrokyne village on the Azov Sea coast.  In the Luhansk sector, regular ceasefire violations were registered in the areas of Novooleksandrivka, Novozvanivka and Popasna. “The militants opened fire from the artillery on Popasna that resulted in civilian casualties. Another tragic incident happened in the vicinity of Lopaskyne village close to Shchastya on October 29”, Mr Pidgornyy added.

As MoD spokesperson stated, Russia-backed militants fired from heavy weapons at the occupied Makiivka, committing a war crime. “The fire was registered from areas close to Mineralne village, Yakovlivka and Yasynuvata – all controlled by the militants”, he explained.