Ukrainian forces intensified the shelling of Donbass

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The Ukrainian troops intensified their shelling of the DPR housing sector and civilian infrastructure on the eve of the ‘Republic Day’. On the morning of 10th of May a residential building in the village of Yasinovataya was damaged by the Ukrainian shelling. On the evening of the same day, a communication substation located in the city of Gorlovka was shelled by 120mm mortars. Thanks to the swift actions of the repair team — the communication was restored during the same evening. On the morning of 11th of May, at 11:50, an electrical substation of the village of Verkhnetoretskoe was fired upon. Local electricians were performing their scheduled maintenance of the electrical substation when they were fired upon by an ATGM. There were 3 electricians near the substation when the missile hit it. Luckily — none of them were injured.

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On 12th of May, 4 houses were damaged by the Ukrainian shelling in the village of Staromikhaylovka. A local woman received multiple burns of her limbs during extinguishing fire on the residential building at 18 Shevchenko Street. 82mm mortars, weaponry of IFVs, heavy machine guns, and small arms were used during the shelling. The 82mm mortars received correction from a spotting drone. Thanks to the coordinated actions of the local air defense troops and the crew of the EW station «Tirricon-M2N» — the Ukrainian drone was shot down. After that — the shelling stopped.

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A civilian was seriously injured in a leg by an anti-personnel mine detonation in the ‘grey zone’, located on the southern part of the contact line, near the Ukrainian positions — the People’s Militia Department reports. It was noted that the local woman planned to cross the contact line by bypassing the established crossing points. Her foot was torn off by an explosion, and she was taken to the hospital in the town of Volnovakha, in the Ukraine-controlled territory. The incident occurred on 14th of May.

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After a video-conference of the contact group on Thursday, gathered to resolve the situation in the eastern Ukraine, Kiev ruled out any possibility of securing the special status of Donbass in the Ukrainian constitution. The decision was confirmed by the office of the Ukrainian President — Vladimir Zelensky. Kiev underlined that the elections in Donbass «can happen only after Ukraine gains the control over the border». According to the Minsk agreements — Ukraine must undergo a constitutional reform with the consolidation of the special status of Donbass in the main law of the country on an ongoing basis.

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«Ukraine is blocking the process of a creation of a transport corridor for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the LPR» — said Olga Kobtseva, the representative of the LPR in the humanitarian working subgroup of the Contact Group, and the head of the working group for the exchange of PoWs of the LPR. She added that the International Committee of the Red Cross was forced to deliver the humanitarian aid to the LPR via a pedestrian bridge near the village of Stanitsa Luganskaya because of the Ukrainian position. Olga Kobtseva clarified that the cargo mostly consists of medications. The officers of LPR Representative Office in the Joint Center for the Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire regime disinfected the cargo after delivery.

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“The new change of the composition of the Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations on a peaceful settlement in Donbass didn’t contribute to the negotiation process” — said the DPR plenipotentiary on the negotiations, the DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova. She reminded that the replacement of the representatives in the negotiations, which Kiev had previously made several times, in practice only interferes with the negotiations. “Due to the Ukrainian refusal to provide their written positions — we have to communicate with the new representatives from scratch, and re-talk and re-discuss the same discussions” — she explained. Earlier, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPR reported that the discussion of the security, economic, humanitarian and political issues, during the two-day round of negotiations, didn’t yield significant results. Constantine Reztsov, specially for ANNA NEWS.