The Ukrainian forces have breached the ceasefire regime three times in the past twenty-four hours, killing a civilian in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), the LPR militia reported on Sunday.
“The ceasefire regime is not observed by the Ukrainian army. In the period from six hours in the morning on August 1 to six hours in the morning on August 2, three instances of the breach of the ceasefire regime were registered,” the LPR Defense Ministry said.
The Ukrainian army continues using 120 mm mortars, even though such armaments are prohibited by the Minsk ceasefire accords, the ministry said.
The package of measures for the fulfillment of the Minsk ceasefire accords, which was signed by the Contact Group on the Ukraine crisis settlement on February 12, obliges the warring sides to pull weapons with the caliber of 100 mm and more at a distance of 50 km (31 miles), multiple launch rocket systems at a distance of 70 km (43 miles), Uragan, Smerch volley fire rocket systems and Tochka ballistic missile complexes at a distance of 140 km (87 miles).
The sides undertook to pull back their weaponry at an equal distance, with Kiev withdrawing armaments from the current engagement line and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics from the line registered in the Minsk memorandum of September 19.
However, the Ukrainian military has been reported to numerously subject populated areas of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic to intensive fire in recent months, including with the use of heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.
The LPR militia completed on July 19 withdrawing all armaments with a caliber of under 100 mm from the engagement line to a distance of no less than 3 km (1.9 miles), except for the Schastye community.
The LPR militiamen said they were ready to pull back weaponry from Schastye as well, if the Ukrainian army took similar measures.
Thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands of people have fled Ukraine’s embattled east as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation, launched in mid-April 2014 to regain control over parts of the breakaway territories, which call themselves the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.
