Ukraine Live Day 548: 3 Ukrainian Soldiers, At Least 2 Civilians Wounded With 82 Attacks Reported

August 19, 2015
Aftermath of an arson attack on a military recruitment office in Krasnoarmeysk last night. Photo: Interior Ministry of Ukraine

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Three Ukrainian Soldiers, At Least Two Civilians Wounded With 82 Attacks Reported Over Last 24 Hours

The Ukrainian military claims that Russian-backed forces conducted 82 attacks yesterday, leaving three soldiers and at least two civilians wounded over the last 24 hours.

The Donetsk Regional Military-Civil Administration announced today that two servicemen had been wounded west of Donetsk, after Russian-backed forces shelled Krasnogorovka and Marinka.

According to the Interior Ministry, a civilian man, born in 1957, was wounded outside their home in Marinka when a shell struck at around 6 am today. He suffered shrapnel wounds and has been taken to a hospital in Kurakhovo.

The ATO Press Centre reports that heavy fighting was also seen to the north of Donetsk.

According to today’s report, Ukrainian troops near Opytnoye came under fire from 120 mm mortars, BMP-2s, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms for around six hours last night.

Positions in Peski and near Donetsk airport were shelled with mortars while the town of Avdeyevka, to the north-east, was bombarded with Grad MLRS at 23:07.

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To the east, the ATO Press Centre reported that Ukrainian forces in the village of Luganskoye, south-east of Artyomovsk on the highway to occupied Debaltsevo, had come under fire from anti-tank missiles and mortars at around 20:30.

Another Ukrainian soldier and civilian were wounded in the Lugansk region, reports the Lugansk Military-Civil Administration.

According to the Administration, a  sapper from the 24th Mechanised Brigade was wounded near Krymskoye while working. The village itself was shelled by a tank last night.

Stanitsa Luganskaya, north-east of Lugansk city, came under fire in two rounds from Vasilyok automatic mortars, grenade launchers and small arms. 

A house on Lermontov Street caught fire and a gas main was ruptured.

Near the village of Valuyskoye, a short distance from Stanitsa Luganskaya, a 50-year-old civilian was wounded at around 16:00, reportedly by a grenade fired by Russian-backed fighters.

Meanwhile, heavy fighting continued in the south of the Donetsk region.

Roman Sokolov, head of the Mariupol Defence media centre, reported this morning that Russian-backed forces had conducted 10 attacks over the last 24 hours, using 122 mm self-propelled artillery, 120 mortars and small arms.

Ukrainian positions near Shirokino and Chermalyk came under fire three times, near Novotroitskoye, twice, and once near Novoselovka and Bogdanovka.

After midnight, Sokolov said, Ukrainian positions close to Starognatovka were shelled with 122 mm artillery.

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Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman for the Presidential Administration, told reporters today that Ukrainian troops had also come under fire near the Donetsk-Mariupol highway, north of Volnovakha:

— Pierre Vaux