UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES OPEN HEAVY ARTILLERY FIRE ON DPR FORCES IN REGION OF DONBASS

Illustrative image: Reuters/Marko Djurica

The Armed Forces of Ukraine reactivated in Donetsk by opening fire at Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) army positions and towns near the front on November 5, according to Anna-news. Two children and one adult were injured, one child killed. A high number of civilians was evacuated.

82mm and 120mm mortars, 122mm and 152mm howitzers, and BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers are reported to have been used. “2126 shots have been fired by Armed Forces of Ukraine at Donetsk People’s Republic in 24 hours,” DPR representative in the Joint Control and Coordination Center, Ruslan Yakubov, said.

DPR forces have retaliated, destroying two howitzer batteries, according to DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko. He also added that Ukraine may have attacked because of a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam this week.

The north of Donetsk and 22 towns near the front were caught in the fire. Eight houses and a car were damaged. Donetsk water purification installation was also damaged due to the attack. One adult was injured. Three children were heavily injured while playing in the playground, with one dying in a hospital. Thousands of civilians were evacuated from Donetsk.

DPR’s command stated that the reason for escalation in Donbass is possibly connected with Ukrainian forces trying to cover up the real reason behind the Opitniy munition depots explosions, reported to have happened on the day of the attack, according to DPR’s operative commander deputy Eduard Basurin.

“We do not rule out the escalation may be due to an attempt of the Ukrainian forces to conceal the real reason behind the Opitniy munition depots going up in flames, which are the overloading the depots with ammo, poor storage conditions of explosives and violations of the storage norms,” Basurin said.

Ukrainian forces allegedly tried to provoke return fire, so that it can be blamed for “their own mistakes resulting in them losing their ammunition near Opitniy,” he said.

A vice admiral of Ukrainian Naval Forces Igor Voronchenko has established a new award named the Iron Cross. It is dedicated to 25th anniversary of the Ukrainian Navy. The weird thing is that the medal is reported to has been “made out of the weaponry that our enemies used in battle against [Ukrainian] navy forces,” and the report did not elaborate which battles exactly “provided” the weaponry in question.

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