Ukraine Day 899: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
Seven Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in the Donbass yesterday as Kiev reports 38 attacks by Russian-backed forces.
Colonel Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told reporters today that one soldier had been wounded by an explosive device near Maryinka, west of Donetsk.
Four were wounded by shelling near Zaytsevo, north of Gorlovka, with the other two casualties of enemy fire in Krasnogorovka, near Maryinka, and Avdeyevka, north of Donetsk.
According to this morning’s ATO Press Center report, Russian-backed forces used 122-mm artillery in two attacks on positions near Zaytsevo, where most of yesterday’s casualties occurred.
Positions near both neighboring Mayorsk and Avdeyevka, outside Donetsk, were shelled with 120- and 82-mm mortars, in addition to grenade launchers. Anti-aircraft artillery fire and sniper attacks were also reported near Avdeyevka.
Vyacheslav Abroskin, chief of the Donetsk regional police, warned this morning that there was a risk that water supplies to Avdeyevka may be cut off after power lines were damaged by shelling last night.
The ATO Press Center has also released photos of what it claims is evidence of damage at a farm south of Maryinka that was shelled by tanks.
According to the report, farm animals were killed and agricultural equipment damaged when 125-mm shells struck the farm.
To the west of Gorlovka, Russian-backed fighters fired on Ukrainian forces near Novgorodskoye from BMP infantry fighting vehicles.
In the south, the ATO Press Center reported heavy artillery of Shirokino, east of Mariupol.
Ivan Chmil, press officer for the sector, told the 112 television channel that the heaviest shelling had been directed at the Vodyanoye area, where Ukrainian forces came under attack three times overnight with both 120- and 82-mm mortars as well as BMP cannons.
In the Lugansk region, military press officer Dmitry Chaliy reported grenade-launcher and machine-gun attacks near Novozvanovka.
Meanwhile, the self-declared “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR) accused Ukrainian forces of firing on separatist-held territory 466 times over 24 hours, using heavy artillery and mortars.
According to the DNR, Ukrainian troops shelled the outskirts of Donetsk and Gorlovka, as well as the villages of Sakhanka and Kominternovo, east of Mariupol.
— Pierre Vaux