1 Ukrainian Soldier Killed, 1 Wounded in Battle; CPJ Criticizes Ukraine for Lack of Progress on Sheremet Investigation

The ATO [Anti-Terrorist Organization] reported in its 6:00 am dispatch that fighting had increased, and one Ukrainian soldier was wounded in grenade fire; another Ukrainian soldier died of his wounds in battle near Zaytsevo. 

On the Lugansk line, after 18:00, militants attacked Novoaleksandrovka with 82-mm mortars; Novotoshkovskoye was also attacked. They used heavy machine guns and grenade-launchers on Novozvanivtsi and Stanitsa Luganskaya.

On the Donetsk line, the Butovka mine was struck with heavy machine guns, and 82-mm mortars, grenade-launchers and small arms were fired on Avdeyevka.

On the Mariupol line, Ukrainian positions at Pavlopol were shelled.

The Ukrainian military also noted an increase in drone activity around Donetsky-Slavyanoserbsk and Stanitsa Luganskaya.

In its evening dispatch, the ATO reported further attacks from a tank near Luganskoye, and a BMP fired on Zaytsevo. There were also attacks with 82-mmmortar-launchers and an armed BMP on Troitskoye; Krymskoye on the Lugansk line and Vodyanoye on the Mariupol line were also shelled.

Gordonua.com reported that there was once again an attack on residential areas around Maryinka, citing the JCCC.

As a result of heavy machine gun fire, several buildings on Telmanova St. in the town of Trudovskoye caught fire. There were no casualties.

In other news:

o Gerashchenko Calls on Mother of Captured Russian Soldier to Appeal to Putin for Pardon of Ukrainians 

Irina Gerashchenko, first deputy vice speaker of the Verkhovna Rada called on the mother of Russian contract soldier Viktor Ageyev to appeal to President Vladimir Putin to parden Ukrainians including Oleg Sentsov held in Russia to unblock the process of freeing POWs in the Donbass, Gordonua.com reports. She noted the cases are not comparable as Sentsov is innocent and Ageyev was a combatant

Russian military authorities have denied Ageyev, captured by Ukrainian forces last month, was on active duty, although he himself and his documents have confirmed that he was.

o CPJ Criticizes Ukraine for Lack of Progress on Sheremet Murder Investigation

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists issued a report on the murder of Pavel Sheremet, a Belarusian journalist who first fled to Russia, then later to Ukraine, faulting Ukrainian justice officials from failing to make progress on investigation of his murder. A year after his assassination in a car bomb in Kiev, no arrest has been made. Says CPJ:

As Gordonua.com reports, the CPJ report explores motives for Sheremet’s murder that include his criticism of the Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian governments.

The Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenka has had a long-standing enmity against Sheremet and government or pro-government figures could have sought revenge for Belorusskiy partizan, a critical site founded by Sheremet.

In Ukraine, radical nationalists may have been attempting to create an atmosphere of fear and further control over independent media, or could be seeking revenge for his criticism of the failure of military reforms and nationalist military units.

The Russian government or pro-Kremlin figures could also have a motive in Sheremet’s murder to sow chaos and fear and to seek revenge for Sheremet’s friendship with Boris Nemtsov, himself slain in February 2015.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

Note: The Interpreter has lost its funding!

Donate to this author to keep news and translations coming.