Donetsk, Dec 11 - DAN. The number of ‘New Year ceasefire’ violations by Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours has increased to 13 from the previous reporting period; Ukrainian army units employed artillery for the first time amid the shaky New Year truce, a DPR Operations Command officer said on Thursday.
“Over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian forces violated the ceasefire 13 times using artillery, mortars, infantry fighting vehicle cannons, grenade launchers and small arms,” he said.
Eight frontline settlements of the Republic came under fire. No casualties or damage were immediately reported.
Ukrainian forces violated the New Year truce five times over the past 24 hours. Head of DPR mission to the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination Ruslan Yakubov said DPR territory had been targeted with 198 rounds of ammunition compared with 49 a day before.
DPR Operations Command reported repeated violations of the ‘New Year ceasefire’ by Kiev forces since it came into effect in Donbass at 00:00 on 23 December, Kiev time (01:00 Donetsk time). It said Ukrainian army units only stopped fire one hour before the truce applied. *jk