Kononov on provocation on the part of Ukrainian forces

Minister of Defense of the DPR Vladimir Kononov: “Today at 03.45 AM severe shelling of positions of militia and Ukrainian Army positions – those, who are not friendly with the Right Sector – started. After that Ukrainian forces entered the face-off confrontation [with us] and the clash began. By 4.30 AM we had three KIA and one WIA. They say that we started the attack on Maryinka, which had already been ours. There was no sense in starting the offensive there for us? This was an outright provocation aimed at discrediting of our forces in the eyes of the global community. Recently Poroshenko talked about his readiness to declare martial law. Perhaps, this provocation was carried out in order to get us involved in hostilities with the ensuing accusation of our failure to abide by the Minsk Agreement. They needed a pretext in order to introduce martial law. The Ukrainian side did everything in order to provoke us. The situation is tense. Practically along the entire line of contact clashes and provocative actions occurred – fighting with the use of firearms was underway in locality Shirokino until 7.00, and in the area of settlement Opytnoye Ukrainian forces carried out an attempt of a breakthrough”.