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Heavy shelling can be heard in northern Donetsk right now. Blasts are audible and some flashes visible on the Ruptly live stream from a camera facing Donetsk Airport. Both distant thuds and harsher, likely closer blasts can be heard, indicating outbound fire from guns near the camera.
Translation: 12 Grads and artillery towards the centre from Tekstilshchilk
Translation: Artillery hasn’t been heard from Durnaya Balka – Smolyanka for a long time. But today, there’s a single, but relatively regular one.
Translation: Avdeyevka, blasts can be heard at the airport.
Translation: There are also salvoes from Yasynuvata, there’s a flash before the salvo and then three bangs from the volley, and near the airport, flying out from the Kievsky district.
Translation: You can just about hear machine guns
— Pierre Vaux
The ‘ministry of defence’ of the self-proclaimed ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DNR) claim to have captured seven Ukrainian servicemen today.
The separatist Donetsk News Agency (DAN) carried the following report this morning (translated by The Interpreter):
“The Ukrainian soldiers were travelling through our territory in a GAZ-66 vehicle. They were captured near Yelenovka (south of Donetsk),” said the press office.
“The Ukrainian servicemen had lost their way in the dark and come out into our territory. Our soldiers conducted an operation to detain them,” explained the Ministry of Defence.
“The Ukrainian troops put up no resistance during the security operation. They are now being investigated. None of our soldiers were captured,” emphasised the agency’s source.
— Pierre Vaux
Odessa police have opened a criminal investigation under anti-terrorism law into an explosion last night on Himnaziyna street at a volunteer centre.
Dumskaya.net reports that the building housed a centre coordinating aid for ATO fighters.
According to the Odessa news site, the explosion took place at 22:36 (20:36 GMT).
The blast was the second of the weekend in the port city, with the first occurring at a railway yard on January 3. The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) are calling that incident a terrorist attack.
On last night’s blast, Interfax-Ukraine reports:
“The Prymorsky district police department of Odesa was alerted about the incident on January 4. Investigators from the Prymorsky district police department who arrived at the scene established that unknown persons had used an explosive device to blow up the entrance door to a public organization’s offices, located in a one-storey building at 3, Himnaziyna Street,” a city police spokesman said on Monday.
No one was hurt in the blast, which destroyed the entrance door and blew out windows in nearby buildings.
Police said the bomb attack, which was carried out by an unidentified person, completely destroyed the center’s door, damaging office blinds and the double-glazed facade windows of neighboring houses. No injuries resulting from the blast have been reported.
As we reported yesterday, the Ukrainian National Guard has joined the police, army and the SBU for anti-terrorism operations in the city.
This is already the sixth such incident this month.
— Pierre Vaux