Ukraine Day 989: LIVE UPDATES BELOW.
The number of attacks on Ukrainian positions decreased today, November 1, but heavier artillery was used, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Reported. There were no Ukrainian casualties reported and one Russia-backed fighter was killed.
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here.
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Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and five wounded yesterday in the Donbass.
Colonel Andriy Lysenko, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, told reporters at a briefing in Kiev today that both soldiers had been killed and two wounded in the village of Slavnoye, southwest of Donetsk city, near the Donetsk-Mariupol highway.
Another two were wounded in Avdeyevka, north of Donetsk, with the fifth in Pishchevik, northeast of Mariupol.
The Ukrainian military claims that Russia-backed forces conducted 37 attacks yesterday.
According to this morning’s ATO Press Center report, the majority of attacks took place to the south and west of Donetsk.
122 mm artillery was reportedly used to shell Pishchevik, while mortars targeted positions near Slavnoye and nearby Novomikhailovka, as well as Lebedinskoye, Vodyanoye and Shirokino, all east of Mariupol.
Both Avdeyevka and Luganskoye, east of Gorlovka, were also reportedly shelled with 82 mm mortars.
Meanwhile, in the Lugansk region, the military claims that 152 mm artillery was used near the village of Krymskoye.
A further 25 attacks were reported between midnight and 18:00 today.
The Ukrainian military reported mortar and grenade-launcher attacks on Shirokino, Pavlopol, northeast of Mariupol, and Taramchuk, on the Donetsk-Mariupol highway.
Continued mortar fire was reported in Avdeyevka and Krymskoye.
Meanwhile the Russia-backed separatists in Donetsk claim that Ukrainian forces fired 344 rounds over 24 hours.
Eduard Basurin, military spokesman for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) said that Ukrainian troops had shelled the outskirts of Donetsk and Gorlovka, as well as villages to the east of Mariupol, with heavy artillery and mortars.
Basuring also reported that two explosions had taken place in Donetsk city.
Russia’s state-owned RIA Novosti news agency quoted Basurin as saying that two blasts occurred last night in the city center, but that no one had been wounded.
Basurin blamed the incidents on Ukrainian agents.
— Pierre Vaux