Donetsk, Sep 7 - DAN. Donetsk People’s Republic Head Denis Pushilin ordered the DPR militia to postpone the elimination of Ukrainian fortifications near the Shumy settlement outside Gorlovka, which had been installed in violation of the additional measures to strengthen the indefinite ceasefire, DPR People’s Militia deputy commander Eduard Basurin said on Monday.
“Certain activity of Ukrainian armed formation has been detected during the observation of the Shumy area next to the contact line since September 5,” Basurin said. “At this point, it is not possible to verify if these actions are aimed at dismantling the illegally organised positions or their further development towards escalating the situation. After the current situation in the Shumy settlement was reported to DPR Head (Denis Pushilin), he made the decision on continuing the monitoring and postponing the operation to remove Ukrainian fortifications to 10:00, September 9, 2020.”
Basurin underlined that “Ukraine still has the opportunity to remedy the violations of the additional ceasefire control measures and present, by 22:00 September 8, 2020, the information on the fact of dismantling the illegally installed fortifications, recorded in written form.”
“The commander-in-chief ( DPR Head - eds Donetsk News Agency) made it clear that his order concerning the elimination of these fortifications had been postponed rather than cancelled. Consequently, if we see that these positions are further strengthened or have not been dismantled by the deadline, we will immediately take counter measures to protect our citizens and the Republic’s territory from abuses by Ukrainian armed formations,” he said.
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On September 5, Pushilin urged Ukraine to make sure that the Ukrainian army’s manpower is absent in the Shumy settlement area starting 08:00, September 7, 2020. At the same time, the DPR leader ordered the Republic’s militia to open fire at Ukrainian army fortifications installed outside Gorlovka in violation of the additional ceasefire control measures.
The demands that Kiev remedy the violations were first issued in Donetsk on August 28. During the operation of additional ceasefire control measures, Ukrainian servicemen installed new fortifications advancing them towards the Seversky Donets-Donbass water duct arc, a key water supply line in the region, with the view of taking a foothold there.
The package of tighter ceasefire control measures came into force in Donbass on July 27, 2020. The document bans the use of any weapons, deployment of hardware, engineer works, use of unmanned aerial vehicles etc.*jk