1 Ukrainian Soldier Killed, 3 Wounded in Attack on Bakhmutka Highway; MP Reports Injury at Avdeyevka

A sign warns of mines in a field at the seaside town of Shirokino in July 2017. Photo by ATO

Ukraine Day 1244: LIVE UPDATES BELOW. One Ukrainian soldier was killed and three were wounded as they repelled an attack on the Bakhmutka highway today.

Yesterday’s coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.

An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlinâ€™s Dirty War in Ukraine

2017-07-16 04:20:56

Doctors operate on MP Evgeny Deydey. Photo via Igor Mosiychuk

One Ukrainian soldier was killed and three were wounded as they repelled an attack on the Bakhmutka highway today, July 15, Liga.net reported, citing the ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation] dispatch.

There was also a battle today in Lugansk Region at Krymskoye around midnight, Liga’net reported.

Russia-backed militants attempted to approach Ukrainian positions and were repelled. Militants fired 82-mm mortars at Tryokhizbeka and used grenade-launchers and small arms on Krymskoye and Malinovoye.

They also fired 120-mm mortars and fired a tank at Krasnogorovka.

On Friday evening, July 14, Ukrainian MP Evgeniy Deydey, was struck by a shell, Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing Radical Party MP Igor Mosiychuk who posted on his Facebook page.

Deydey had traveled to Avdeyevka to visit the Kiev regiment about 17:00. He says he was wounded at the crossroads of Shkolnoye St. in Old Avdeyevka where he said he heard an explosion. He was hospitalized with a diagnosis of a penetrating wound from firearms.

Meanwhile, military authorities say there was no shelling of Avdeyevka at the time he visited the town, and that shelling began at 21:30 from the industrial zone.

Deydey required a blood transfusion and was airlifted to the military hospital in Dnepr, Mosiychuk said. Deydey was under investigation of charges that he hid an apartment and two automobiles from his asset reports to the parliament, but on July 11, the Verkhovna Rada decided not to provide consent for prosecution.

Soldiers of a motorized infantry brigade defending positions near Shirokino says that not a single home is left undamaged in this town which was once an elite reort on the Azov sea, the ATO reported. Today pictures taken by soldiers show tank along the beach and signs warning of sea mines and land mines throughout the town. Russia-backed forces continue to fire 82-mm and 120-mm mortars, grenade-launchers, heavy machine guns and tanks at the town.

A commander of the platoon who gave his name as Mikhail says (translation by The Interpreter):

“We observe how on the other side, about twice a day the terrorist forces run a rotation of their personnel. They come from the direction of Bezymyannoye. They are reinforcing their positions and defense constructions there and firing from heavy armor with weapons from the direction of Sakhanka; they don’t approach us but are firing from a distance.”

A commander of a battalion of the Kaskad Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade said:

“Taking advantage of the fact that a ‘harvest ceasefire’ has been declared, the pro-Russian mercenaries have been conducting so-called ‘trench warfare’. They are quietly digging trenches, re-enforcing their positions, and the majority of the firing is at night or twilight when the international organizations of the UN and OBSCE cannot record their violations of the Minsk agreements. The militants fire from mortar-launchers of 120-mm and 82-mm caliber, armored vehicles — BMPs and BTRs — are also used. They are provoking us to a violation of the agreement so that we open fire.”

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

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