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UA Position reports:
On the Donetsk front, the militants’ mortar fire continued for roughly 12 hours on leading Ukrainian positions near Svitlodarsk. Militant provocations continue along the western perimeter of the militant-controlled area in Horlivka from Mykolaivka Druha to Novhorodske. The fronts from Avdiivka to Mariinka have experienced more than half of ceasefire violations by the illegal armed groups in the entire ATO area. At the same time, the highest concentration of militant’s heavy arms is located in this are. However, such provocations may not result in a change on the front line in favour of the enemy. The ATO forces will maintain their positions.
On the Mariupol front Ukrainian positions near Starohnativka became the epicentre of military activity. For about six hours before and after dawn, the militants continued their attacks using 122mm cannons. The shelling was conducted from a distance of more than six km. Later in the afternoon, there was a short-term armed provocation by militants in Shyrokyno. Other lines in the area remained calm throughout the day yesterday. Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and seven were injured due to fighting yesterday.
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National Security and Defense Council:Militants have violated the ceasefire 100 times over the past day
Kyiv, July 31, 2015. A record number of attacks by militants has been reached over the last 24 hours. Yesterday, an unprecedented number of ceasefire violations by militants were recorded, exceeding 100 attacks. Such number of armed provocations by the enemy has not been recorded for more than a m
Ukrainian government sources report intense shelling last night and casualties at several points along the front line.
Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military operation, reported today that two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and seven wounded over the last 24 hours:
One Ukrainian soldier, from the 128th Brigade, was wounded by a shell blast in Stanitsa Luganskaya, north-west of Lugansk.
Novosti Donbassa reports, citing the Lugansk Military-Civil Administration, that the town was fired-on last night with mortars, automatic grenade launchers and RPGs. One garage was burnt down and a gas main severed by shrapnel.
Another report from the Lugansk Administration claimed that two civilians had been wounded and three homes destroyed in Toshkovka, north of the Bakhmutka highway.
According to the announcement, the shelling took place at 2:30 this morning. A 23-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman were wounded in two neighbouring houses.
Three other homes were damaged and both gas and electricity lines severed.
The Administration noted that this was the first attack on Toshkovka, which lies more than 10 kilometres from the contact line, in more than three months.
The Ukrainian military’s ATO Press Centre claimed this morning that Russian-backed forces had conducted 105 attacks yesterday, 46 of them taking place between 18:00 and midnight.
In the Donetsk area, Ukrainian troops near Opytnoye, north of the separatist-held city, were attacked by armoured personnel carriers and mortars. Positions in nearby Vodyanoye were later shelled from Donetsk with 122 mm artillery. In Marinka, to the south-west, a Ukrainian defensive positions was fired on by a tank.
As in the Lugansk region, the scope of shelling appears to be widening. For the second night in a row, the village of Yasnobrodovka, around 12 kilometres from the front line, to the north-west of Donetsk, was shelled with 152 mm artillery. Meanwhile, the village of Ostroye, nearly 9 kilometres north-west of Marinka, was shelled with the same type of artillery.
The Press Centre also reported an increase in Russian-backed forces’ military activity in the Gorlovka area.
In particular, troops in the village of Luganskoye, south-east of Artyomovsk, were attacked with artillery, heavy mortars and armoured personnel carriers.
Colonel Lysenko said today that Ukrainian positions near Svetlodarsk, just west of Luganskoye, last night, had been heavily shelled: