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An Invasion By Any Other Name: The Kremlin’s Dirty War in Ukraine
Russian-backed forces reportedly attacked Ukrainian military positions 70 times over the previous 24 hours, according to a briefing of the Ukrainian Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) Headquarters on Sunday morning.
Ukraine Today reports that three Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another two were injured in levels of fighting that were double what had happened over the previous day.
Unian.info reports:
Most of the attacks occurred in the Mariupol sector where Russia’s hybrid military force fired 152mm and 122mm artillery at the villages of Vodiane, Lebedynske, Talakivka and Shyrokyne. Additionally, militants used mortars of various calibres, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and small arms in Shyrokyne, Talakivka, Krasnohorivka, Lebedynske, Hnutove, Maryinka and Pavlopil. The village of Shyrokyne also came under tank attack.
ATO HQ: Russian proxies attack Ukraine 70 times in last day
Most of the attacks occurred in the Mariupol sector where Russia's hybrid military force fired 152mm and 122mm artillery at the villages of Vodiane, Lebedynske, Talakivka and Shyrokyne. Additionally, militants used mortars of various calibres, rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and small arms in Shyrokyne, Talakivka, Krasnohorivka, Lebedynske, Hnutove, Maryinka and Pavlopil.
The sudden upswing in violence may or may not indicate a larger trend — and this is part of the problem on the line of demarcation, that while there is violence every day, Ukraine cannot necessarily predict when the Russian-backed fighters will launch an offensive, but the Minsk agreement basically guarantees that Ukraine will not be launching a full-scale attack any time soon. In other words, nearly three years since the start of this conflict the Russian-backed forces have all the battlefield initiative while Ukraine has its hands tied by the diplomatic process.
— James Miller