Donetsk, Oct 26 - DAN. Ukrainian troops made an attempt to occupy the Staromaryevka village in the Telmanovsky district, located on the contact line with the Donetsk People’s Republic, DPR representative at the Minsk talks, the Republic’s Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova said on Tuesday.
“Yesterday, Ukraine carried out an outrageous act of aggression as Ukrainian armed formations made an attempt to occupy the Staromaryevka settlement in the Telmanovsky district, located on the contact line,” Nikonorova said in a statement.
No information on the current situation in the village is available.
Earlier reports said that on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian armed formation opened mortar fire at the outskirts of the Novaya Maryevka village, Telmanovsky district, in southern DPR (located four kilometers from Staromaryevka). According to the DPR Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC), fire was delivered from Ukrainian troops positions in the Granitnoye settlement area at 6:20 and 6:45. The enemy fired 20 82mm and 120mm mortar rounds. A house was damaged in the shelling.
Niikonorova said that the occupation of the settlement violated the Donbass peace accords, in particular Item a) of the Additional Measures to Strengthen the Ceasefire which bans any offensives; Protocol Additional II to the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts and a number of other international acts.
“Such provocations by Ukrainian armed formations are absolutely inadmissible which we stated in the relevant note to the OSCE SMM head and the OSCE special representative in Ukraine and the Contact Group. We are urging the guarantor countries and the international community to use all possible ways of putting pressure on Kiev in order to stop the outrage committed by Ukrainian authorities and return them onto the track of diplomatic settlement of the conflict,” Nikonorova said. *jk