The World Daily
A day before the arranged ceasefire in Ukraine, attacks were launched by Russian-led forces in Donbas

Ukrainian soldier with a PKM machine gun during a combat clash near the town of Novoluhanske, eastern Ukraine, on June 14, 2019.

 

A day before the arranged ceasefire in Ukraine, attacks were launched by Russian-led forces in Donbas

 

By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | JULY 26th 2020

 

Preparations were being made for the initiation of a full ceasefire agreement in Eastern Ukraine’s contact line, in the Joint Forces Operation zone. It is to start on July 27. Reports had recently come in, however, of 15 attacks on Ukrainian positions in Donbas occurring in this time, by Russian-led forces.

The news came in a morning update on July 26 from Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) press centre, stating that “Last night, no enemy shelling was recorded in the areas of responsibility of the vast majority of units except for 15 violations of the ceasefire in Krymske, Prychepylivka, Popasna, Troitske, Novozvanivka, Novo-Oleksandrivka, Orikhove, Avdiyivka, Nevelske, Lebedynske, Opytne, and Vodiane.”

No casualties on the side of the Ukrainians were reported. JFO units did not return fire, following the conditions of the Minsk agreement, given that it was deemed “harassing fire.”

This news update comes following reports of 9 more attacks having come only a day before in the Dombas region, also launched by the Russian-led forces. The attackers had reportedly “fired proscribed 120mm and 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, machine guns, as well as small arms,” the Unian Information Agency described.

Ukraine and Russia have been in conflict with one another since the Crimea Crisis back in 2014, when Russian forces annexed the country’s Crimea region by force. The conflict continues to this day, with Pablo Mateu –a United Nation Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Ukraine– having notified journalists that by the end of 2018, at least 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced within the country.

On July 25, the JFO HQ wrote an update saying “From 00:01 [Kyiv time] on July 27, Ukrainian servicemen specially deployed at each of our positions will exercise additional control over the ceasefire. Most of them have extensive combat experience and directly dealt with relevant issues during participation in UN-sponsored peacekeeping missions.” This was sometime before the attacks.

“We are well aware that in some parts of the contact line, various provocations by the enemy may take place to disrupt the truce,” they added.

The temporary truce was agreed upon on July 22, when the Trilateral Contact Group –Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)– held a video conference, in which all parties present had agreed to the full and comprehensive ceasefire.

In 2019, the UN rights office had reported that since the beginning of the 6-year-long conflict, somewhere around 13,000-13,200 people had lost their lives. A quarter of this number were civilians. As well as this, it’s also been found that somewhere around 30,000 were wounded.

In November of 2016, the International Criminal Court (ICC) had ruled the fighting in Ukraine’s Eastern regions as “an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.”

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate have warned that there are still reports of Russian forces continuing to supply the Eastern regions of the country with weapons, ammunition, fuel and lubricants, and other military equipment. While the ceasefire is set to be put in place, it is feared that the fighting has yet to see any end on the horizon.

 

By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2020

 

 

Categories:
World
Tags:
EuropeUkraineDonbasRussiaConflicts