Donetsk, Feb 17 — DAN. Ukrainian gunmen have fired 72 artillery rounds at Donetsk and Makeyevka on February 17 which marks the anniversary of Donbass conflict escalation, said the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine’s war crimes (JCCC).
“The Kirovsky, Kievsky and Kuibyshevsky districts of Donetsk and Makeyevka’s Chervonogvardeisky district, came under fire on Friday morning, ” the JCCC said. The enemy used NATO-supplied artillery delivering fire from the Kiev-held Tonenkoye, Lastochkino, Karlovka, Galitsinovka and Avdeyevka. No civilian casualties have been reported.
The Donbass conflict escalated on February 17, 2022 as the Ukrainian army fired some 160 rounds of ammunition at nine settlements in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. To protect the civilian population, DPR militiamen opened return fire to suppress enemy weapons. On the same day, Ukrainian forces used heavy artillery.
Before the escalation, a package of additional ceasefire control measures had been formally in effect in the region. It banned the use of weapons, deployment of hardware next to residential areas and engineering works at troops’ positions. Kiev regularly violated the ceasefire accords.*jk