Ukrainian forces shell Zaytsevo settlement injuring one person – media
MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/. Kyiv forces have shelled the Zaytsevo settlement in Gorlovka’s north in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) injuring one person, a source in DPR’s law enforcement said on Saturday.
“Ukrainian forces started shelling the Zaytsevo village around 11:30am. A local resident was injured on the Popov Street,” Donetsk News Agency quoted the source as saying.
The source added that self-defense forces are trying to transport the injured woman from the zone subjected to shelling as fire continues. According to the source, Ukrainian forces are shelling the village from their positions in the Zhovanka settlement from anti-aircraft guns, automatic mounted grenade launchers and small arms.
On December 22 the Contact Group on peaceful settlement of conflict in Donbass agreed at the meeting in Minsk to “fully and unconditionally” observe the ceasefire regime since 12am on December 23.
However, over the last weeks DPR defense ministry registered the growing number of shellings near Gorlovka and in Donetsk’s northern and western outskirts. Deputy Chief Monitor of the Special Monitoring Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Alexander Hug said that Donetsk’s outskirts and Gorlovka remain the “hot spots” on the contact line in Donbass.
The Minsk accords were signed on February 12 last year, after negotiations in the so-called “Normandy format” in the Belarusian capital Minsk, bringing together Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko.
The Minsk accords envisage ceasefire, weaponry withdrawal, prisoner exchange, local election in Donbass, constitutional reform in Ukraine and establishing working sub-groups on security, political, economy and humanitarian components of the Minsk accords.
The Ukrainian forces and the self-defense forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire and other points of the Minsk agreements.