Donbass — weekly news

The residents of the village of Trudovskie told that the first few days of the new year of 2019 they spent in peace and quiet. The residents could walk on the streets more or less safely. »Currently, there is a gradual increase of the number of ceasefire violations done by the Ukrainian forces in comparison with the previous week. A total of 37 attacks were recorded» — said the Deputy Head of the DPR People’s Militia Department, Eduard Basurin. Mortars, weapons of the IFVs, grenade launchers, machine guns and other small arms were used in the shelling. For the most part, the shelling occurred around Donetsk, Yasinovataya, and the village of Sakhanka, located in the south of the Republic.

According to the Department of People’s Militia of the DPR — two servicemen of the Ukrainian Forces died, another one was wounded, as a result of their unsuccessful attempt of making a passage in the Ukrainian minefield barriers near the village of Avdeevka. It was reported that the bodies were evacuated at twilight. Instead of maintaining the ceasefire in the area of the evacuation of the bodies, which is normal for the conflict zone, Ukrainian forces decided to cover up the course of their operation by firing grenades at the DPR positions during the “Christmas” truce.

Ukrainian forces performed a shelling in the area of Pervomaisk, where the observers of the Special Monitoring Mission of the OSCE were located. The shelling took place in order to prevent their free movement across the territory of the Republic — said Lieutenant Colonel Andrei Marochko, an official representative of the People’s Militia of the LPR. «During the snow cleaning of the road section in the city area, when the OSCE SMM patrol was monitoring the cease fire — the Ukrainian Forces opened fire from small arms from the direction of Novoaleksandrovka, currently controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces». “Due to the threat of safety to the personnel of the Pervomaiskii housing and communal services department and to patrol of the OSCE SMM — the snow cleaning was stopped. The people, involved in the cleaning, were evacuated from the shelling zone” — said a representative of the joint control and coordination center.

Three employees of the utility company »Voda Donbassa» were injured near Yasinovataya. “On 10th of January, during a snow removal trip to the place of work by »Voda Donbassa» employees, near the Vasilyevskii pumping station of the first ascent, connected to the South Donbass water pipeline — Ukrainian troops opened fire on the company vehicle. The shelling was performed from the direction of the Kamenka settlement. Rapid-fire grenade launcher and the weaponry of the BMP-1 were used during the shelling. As a result — three employees of the utility company were injured” — said the head of the DPR representative office of the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire — Ruslan Yakubov. According to him — the company vehicle caught fire during the shelling.