Kyiv, 30 December 2014 – “Within the last day the situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone has become more complicated. Militants re-deploy and amass their forces in the area of Shchastya town, near Stary Aidar village in particular, terrorists are moving cannon artillery, self-propelled artillery and tanks to the area. Near Pisky village of Yasynuvata district militants attacked the company stronghold of Ukrainian servicemen. The attack was repelled, terrorists suffered considerable losses,” informed Colonel Andriy Lysenko, ATO spokesman at a briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Resulting from terrorists’ shelling “Pushkino” power substation in the Donetsk region exploded cutting off power supply to Snizhne town and adjacent localities. Within the last day 3 Ukrainian servicemen were killed, one got wounded.
As per the statement made by the self-proclaimed Head of the Luhansk central office for railway transportation Gennadiy Borodin, the so-called “Luhansk people’s republic” took all preparatory measures to launch the Luhansk-Moscow train. “There are two possible routes for the train. Most probable one is Luhansk- Lutuhyne- Krasnodon- Sverlovsk- “Chervona Mohyla” BCP and then to the territory of the Russian Federation. In such a way terrorists plan to establish direct railway connection between the occupied territories and Russia through officially closed border crossing points at the temporary uncontrolled section of the state border,” explained Colonel Lysenko.
Ukrainian border guards stepped up security measures at the eastern borders. Near Mariupol all checkpoints but Hnutove are closed on entry for the citizens. “It is a temporary measure taken not to let terrorist groups into Ukrainian territory and to guarantee security to civilian population in the Donetsk region,” underlined ATO spokesman.