Ministry of Defense: Ukrainian JCCC officers come under militants’ fire

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Ukrainian Armed Forces incurred no losses in combat, and one soldier was wounded.

Ukrainian officers of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) came under militants’ sniping fire. They were taking photographic evidence of militants’ shooting attack at Lobacheve town, informed the spokesman of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on ATO related issues Colonel Oleksandr Motuzyanyk at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

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Ukrainian Armed Forces incurred no losses in combat, and one soldier was wounded in mortar shelling delivered by militants in Verkhniotoretske in the Donetsk sector. “Russian proxies continue evacuating corpses of militants killed near Avdiivka. According to military intelligence, on February 5 two KAMAZ trucks filled with dead bodies set off from the Kalinin regional hospital in Donetsk to Rostov-na-Donu in Russia,” said the spokesman.

Russia-backed militant groups continue shelling in all sectors using heavy armor. Militants conducted 32, 22 and 24 shooting attacks in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Mariupol sector correspondingly.

In the Donetsk sector the situation remains difficult in Avdiivka. “In total, hostile attacks continued about 12 hours with recesses. The absolute armistice held in Avdiivka only from 9 a.m. till 3 p.m. Occupant forces were actively using mortar launchers before and after that. The enemy was shooting from 152-mm cannons in the afternoon and shot from a tank more than 20 times. Hostile snipers were active on Avdiivka flanks during the day, and militants shelled Ukrainian positions in this area using mortar launchers,” said Col. Motuzyanyk. Representatives of central and local authorities in Avdiivka are working to liquidate the results of attacks conducted by militants. Seven repair crews removed 44 destructions in private and communal sector. Repair crews continued working this morning. Donetsk filtering plant operates in a normal mode.

Russia-backed militants continue fighting in the vicinity of the Donetsk airport where Ukrainian positions in Opytne came under fire from grenade launchers and machine guns several times, and were shelled from mortars after the sunset. The situation in the Horlivka perimeter is similar to the previous days. “Militants are provoking Ukrainian troops to respond with fire during the day, and start using heavy armor after the hours of darkness. For instance, they were using mortar launchers yesterday,” said Col. Motuzyanyk. Moreover, militants shelled a Ukrainian rear area yesterday, attacking Kurdiumivka village north of Horlivka. A 17-year-old boy died in the shelling. Russian proxies continue shelling ATO troops from mortar launchers at the Svitlodarsk bulge. “According to Ukrainian military intelligence, artillery elements of so-called “11th separate motorized rifle regiment” are shooting at residential buildings on the criminal orders of Russian command,” added the spokesman.

The situation in the Luhansk sector was the most restless in Krymske yesterday. Militants were active there in the afternoon and started shooting from heavy armor almost at once, using mortars and cannon artillery after dark. Russian proxies launch at ATO troops about 100 mortar shells and over 70 artillery projectiles during four hours of sporadic attacks. Pro-Russian militants were slightly less active in the Popasna district. They violated the ceasefire eight times there, using heavy armor twice and conducting brief mortar attacks in Novozvanivka and Troitske. “Militants violated the ceasefire twice during the day – in Zhovte and Novotoshkivske. Militants’ sniper shelled our positions twice in the latter. The armistice held in Stanytsia Luhanska area,” added the spokesman.

In the Mariupol sector militants started massive artillery mortar attack at Ukrainian positions in Shyrokyne and the adjacent Lebedynske. They stopped shooting after two hours. Russia-backed militant groups engaged tanks in the same strongholds. The second shooting attack at ATO troops in this area took place in the afternoon and it was less intense. Similar to the previous attack, militants were using cannons and mortar launchers. “Further northwards the enemy was violating the ceasefire in Vodiane, Hnutove, Pavlopil, Bohdanivka, Novotroitske and Mariinka. Militants hardly used any mortar launchers. The absolute majority of the incidents involved use of small arms,” said Col. Motuzyanyk.

Report on the military developments as of February 6 is available here. Interactive data on the shelling: chronology shelling chart and the interactive map.