Amid rising tensions in Donbas DPR deploys Somali battalion to Horlivka
Against the backdrop of the escalating tension in the Donbas, numerous reports have been made detailing the redeployment of the Somali battalion to the Horlivka, which is held by pro-Russian militants. This has occurred amid attacks against Zaytseve (near Horlivka), which have lasted three days, the TSN program reports.
Last weekend, two residential buildings were destroyed in Zaytseve. On Monday afternoon, the settlement can under heavy artillery shelling. Fortunately, no one was injured by these enemy attacks, which were witnessed by journalists.
The Ukrainian Military stated that the shelling was carried out from the center of the separatist-held Horlivka.
“Mostly, their artillery works in the evening and they attack the village,” a fighter of the 24th brigade stated. “There are civilians present when they bomb, destroying their houses.”
There has not been a day of respite from heavy machine gun attacks against the settlement.
“They probably have some separate assault team for provocations, because about eight people appear and then heavy firing starts,” one of the servicemen told journalists.
Media controlled by the militants, meanwhile, confirmed that an assault group of separatists called ‘Somali’ were transferred to Horlivka to fight against the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, witnesses from the annexed regions reported via social media that they spotted Russian career officers working with Somali militants.
During the separatists’ shelling in Marinka in the Donetsk region on Monday, May 21, a 36-year a local resident was killed after he went out on his yard on the outskirts of Marinka while militants were firing on the town using small arms. He was struck by one of the bullets, and when the ambulance arrived, his death was confirmed.
On Monday, militants also have fired on Toretsk, and as a result, in the morning of May 21, a building of the Social and Psychological rehabilitation center was damaged, which at the time held 28 children. Police evacuated children and staff from the Rehabilitation Center to a safe area.
In total, as a result of artillery shelling by militants in Toretsk, seven houses were damaged in the morning. Over the past day, the situation in the area of the Joint forces operation remained tense. Intensive fighting continued in the Svitlodarsk, Horlivka, Donetsk and Mariupol regions.
On May 20 at 5 o’clock in the morning, separatists launched heavy mortar fire against residential houses in Zaitseve, violating international law. Last week, militants of the Russian separatist forces fired on the center of Svitlodarsk in the Donetsk region. One of the shells hit a local schoolyard where 387 pupils and 46 teachers and education staff were located.