Ukraine Day 1088: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
The Ukrainian military claims to have destroyed a vehicle carrying Russian or separatist fighters near Mariupol yesterday, killing two and wounding three.
Ukrainian military press officer Ivan Chmil told Mariupol news site 0629.com.ua that Ukrainian troops had used an anti-tank missile to destroy the unspecified vehicle which was allegedly endangering their position.
Chmil said that, according to “preliminary data,” two enemy fighters were killed and three wounded, one of them, he claimed, an intelligence officer in the Russian armed forces..
Both TSN and 0629 also report that a Russian drone, reportedly an Orlan-10, was shot down by Ukrainian troops in the south of the Donetsk region.
No video or photographic evidence has emerged so far to confirm these claims.
The Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk have made no mention of such an incident, but report that three of their fighters were killed and one wounded across the front yesterday.
This afternoon, separatist military spokesman Eduard Basurin accused Ukrainian forces of firing 17 artillery shells and 163 mortar rounds over the last 24 hours, targeting the outskirts of Donetsk and Gorlovka, as well as villages to the east of Mariupol.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reports no Ukrainian casualties yesterday.
Across the whole front, the military reported 82 attacks, with heavy artillery used in all three main sectors.
In the Mariupol area, 152 and 122-mm artillery were reportedly used in attacks on Lebedinskoye and Shirokino, to the east of the port city. Mortars were also used in attacks on Shirokino and Gnutovo, to the north east. Grenade-launcher and small-arms attacks were reported near Lebedinskoye, Vodyanoye and Pavlopol.
The Mariupol City council reported this morning that another nearby village, Talakovka, had been shelled last night, causing damage to an electricity substation and leaving around 500 homes without electricity.
Around Donetsk, there was further reported use of 152-mm artillery against both Maryinka, to the west, and Avdeyevka, to the northeast, in addition to mortar and grenade-launcher attacks near Nevelskoye, Verkhnetoretskoye, Kamenka, Opytnoye, Peski, and Troitskoye. Further to the northeast, near Gorlovka, there were similar attacks reported near Zaytsevo, Mironovsky and Luganskoye. The military also claims that tanks were used to shell both Avdeyevka and Luganskoye.
In the Lugansk region, the military reports the use of 152 and 122-mm artillery in attacks on Novotoshkovskoye and Krymskoye, where the Ministry of Defense claims more than 90 shells fell yesterday. Mortar use was reported near Malinovoye, while armored vehicles allegedly fired on positions near Novozvanovka.
— Pierre Vaux