Russia's hybrid military forces have attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 23 times in the past 24 hours, with two Ukrainian soldiers reported as wounded in action, the press service of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters has reported.
"Over the past day, the invaders have opened fire 23 times on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ... As a result of enemy attacks, two Ukrainian defenders have been injured. They were given emergency medical assistance. There are no threats to their lives," the ATO press center said.
The headquarters note that the situation in the ATO zone remains complicated: the militants are increasing their fire activity along the entire collision line, increasingly using artillery and other weapons prohibited by the Minsk accords. "About ten armed provocations were carried out using artillery, mortars and a tank," the report says.
Most of the shelling happened at the dark time of the day. In addition, the militants are firing on front-line settlements, wherefore the local civilian population suffers, ATO headquarters said.
At about 20:00 Kyiv time, the Russian occupation troops started firing 152mm rocket artillery systems on the defenders of the village of Zaitseve, which is in the Luhansk sector. The shelling lasted about two hours, with nearly a hundred shells launched. As a result of these attacks, one of the shells hit a residential house. "Furthermore, the militants fired 120mm mortars near the village of Lozove as well as 82mm mortars on the Ukrainian fortified positions near the villages of Novhorodske and Luhanske. In addition, they fired from a tank near Novhorodske," the report says.
In the Donetsk sector, the enemy lobbed over ten 120mm mines near the village of Verkhniotoretske. Moreover, the enemy also actively used the entire range of infantry weapons on different parts of the front line. The defenders of a number of front-line settlements in both Luhansk and Donetsk regions came under enemy attacks, including near the towns of Svitlodarsk, Krasnohorivka and Avdiyivka, and the villages of Troyitske, Novhorodske, and Starohnativka.
Despite the fact that the enemy fire was rather dense, the Armed Forces of Ukraine returned fire after almost every enemy shelling.
