Ukraine Day 1103: 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
There are reports of heavy shelling in the north of Donetsk again this afternoon.
#Avdeyevka incoming in the direction of Tonenkoye and Severnoye
Ukrainian-controlled Avdeyevka is currently without running water after a shell struck a water filtration station last night.
The Ukrainian military claims that Russia-backed fighters fired 80 mortar shells and around 20 tank rounds on the town yesterday.
Earlier this afternoon, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced that one Ukrainian soldier had been killed and two wounded yesterday.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russia-backed forces conducted 83 attacks across the whole front line.
Interestingly, the escalation in shelling this afternoon comes amid reports from several sources that MP and former political prisoner Nadiya Savchenko has entered separatist-held Donetsk.
The Donetsk News Agency (DAN), a semi-official media outlet for the Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk, reported that Savchenko would visit Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Savchenko, a former Ukrainian military officer, was captured by militants near Lugansk in June, 2014, and illegally abducted to Russia, where she was jailed and convicted of trumped-up charges in a show trial before finally being released home to Ukraine as part of a prisoner exchange.
Having returned a national hero and entered parliament, she has since become a highly controversial figure in Ukraine for her engagement with the separatists, particularly after meeting with the leaders of the so-called Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in December.