Ukrainian Military Command: Separatists are strengthening their combat positions in the Donbas
The Press Center of the Ukrainian Military command in the Donbass reports via Facebook that the Ukrainian side of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire in the Donbas (JCCC) has discovered that separatists are using the ceasefire to secretly concentrate military equipment and armament within the temporarily uncontrolled territory of Ukraine.
Observers from the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) in the vicinity of the settlement of Buhaivka in the Luhansk region discovered 15 units of towed artillery of various calibers, as well as fresh traces of heavy trucks on both lanes of the highway leading to the border with the Russian Federation to the south-east of the settlement of Kuznets.
In addition, the JCCC indicated that the separatists are continuing to equip their fortifications in the uncontrolled territories of the Donetsk region.
On the basis of aerial observation data, operational sites well equipped by the enemy were recently found about 150 meters southwest of the settlement of Zaitseve, reinforced fortifications of a length of about 400 meters passing near the railroad track to the north of the town of Horlivka and north of the settlement of Dokuchaievsk.
Additionally, according to preliminary information, two units of self-propelled artillery weapons were also found near the railway station in Debaltseve.
The Ukrainian side of the JCCC stresses that "such actions on the part of the Russian Federation's occupying administration should be regarded as the next stage in the preparation of desired effects for its use [against] the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the peaceful population of Donbas, in violation of the Minsk Agreements."
On March 5, an indefinite truce came into force in the Donbas. Over the course of one day, March 9, the separatists violated the ceasefire three times; one Ukrainian soldier was killed, and another injured.