Ukrainian military command: pro-Russian militants tried to advance towards Mariupol
The First Deputy Commander of the United Forces, Major-General Valery Zaluzhny, stated on the Joint Forces Operation Facebook page that militants “tried to advance towards Mariupol,” the Delovaya Stolitsa news outlet reports.
“From the beginning of the Joint Forces Operation, the situation in the area of combat actions has remained tense,” Zaluzhny stated. “The enemy was most active near Avdiivka and Mariupol.”
He went on to say: “In the area of Avdiivka, the enemy keeps trying to take control of important facilities of the industrial zone with constant attacks and shelling from weapons prohibited by the Minsk Agreements. The enemy fired at surroundings of Avdiivka 11 times. Mortars were used three times.”
The situation in the areas of Marinka and Krasnohorivka remains restless. The enemy used sniper fire to provoke units.
“One of our fighters was injured,” Zaluzhny stated. “His condition is stable.”
According to Zaluzhny, in the course of 24 hours, Ukrainian marines repelled attacks of the enemy in Vodyane, Shyrokyne, Pavlopil and Pishchevyk, where the enemy is trying to advance towards Mariupol to increase the opportunity of shelling the town. Mortar fire was directed at the settlements of Lebedynsky and Talakivka. There have been no civilian victims.
“It was not quiet in the Luhansk region, where the enemy tried to push our soldiers back from the positions taken in the area of Svitlodarsk, using fire systematically and prohibited weapons,” the Joint Forces Operation statement reads. “During the fighting, which continued almost all day, two of our soldiers were injured.”
Within 24 hours, the enemy fired at the Joint Forces 44 times. The enemy resorted to assault actions three times and used prohibited weapons six times.
The statement reads: “According to intelligence, on the first day of the operation, the enemy had 5 injured people.”