Donbass, March 18th, 2018

The People’s Militia of the LPR hopes that the leaders of the countries «Norman format» will respond to the announcement by the President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko of launching an «operation of the united forces» in Donbass, which testifies to Kiev’s aggressive plans for the region. The President of Ukraine announced on the 16th of March about the change in the format of «ATO» to the «operation of the united forces» in the framework of the law on the so-called «reintegration of Donbass». According to him, it «will help restore the territorial intEgrity of Ukraine.»

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The President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko in an interview with the German media group Funke said that he counts on political and financial support from Germany. «From Germany, first of all, we expect political, financial and humanitarian support,» Poroshenko said. In addition, he noted that he hopes for supply weapons from the United States, as well as from Canada, France and Lithuania.

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In the operational command of the DPR, the observance of the ceasefire by Ukrainian forces in Donbass is associated with the arrival of the Ukrainian president Petr Poroshenko in the region. «We see, the appointed commander of the united forces operation Sergei Naev made every possible effort to ensure peace and security during the visit to the zone of the so-called ATO of his high-ranking patron Petr Poroshenko on the 16th of March,» the deputy commander of the operational command, Eduard Basurin told journalists.

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Employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the DPR defused about ten explosive items on the road to the Donetsk filtration station, Ruslan Yakubov said. It is specified that thanks to the actions of the republican sappers the representatives of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission could go to the DFS.

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As a result of military aggression by Ukraine five people were killed and two injured in the Donetsk People’s Republic for two past weeks. A representative of the Ombudsman’s Office added that since the beginning of the year, because of the fighting, 27 people were killed in the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

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Donetsk demands Kiev to include 297 the DPR residents in the list for exchange, who are kept on the territory of Ukraine, while the Ukrainian authorities confirm the presence of only 81 prisoners, Daria Morozova said.

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Representatives of Ukraine at meeting in Minsk announced they are ready to withdraw forces in Stanitsa Luganskaya, the representative of the DPR at the talks Vladislav Deynego said. «Representatives of Ukraine once again promised to withdraw forces on the 18th of March. We hope that this proposal will prove to be well founded and will be backed up by appropriate notification and real actions, «he said.