Ukrainian troops destroy pro-Russian military base in Donbas
A week before the so-called "harvest ceasefire" was declared in the Donbass, the military of the 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed and damaged more than 20 units of military equipment of the pro-Russian militants. The 54th brigade has published a video of this operation.
"So, July 2019, a week before the announcement of the ceasefire. The brigade receives information from the headquarters of Joint Forces Command North: tomorrow, the enemy plans to strike the positions of the Ukrainian army with artillery. The exact coordinates and time of the attack were not available. That's why we had to act in advance at night. We placed observation points and people along the entire line of our defense," the military wrote on Facebook.
The next day, the militants shelled the positions of the 54th Brigade using 122 caliber artillery. Right at the very beginning of the shelling, the Ukrainian military recorded the enemy's coordinates and passed the exact coordinates to the Ukrainian artillery units.
"We had to act very quickly because the shelling from the other side was getting stronger. The K-2 combat group, supported by a platoon of technical equipment of the brigade's intelligence, advanced to their firing positions. The cover group was working on its task: to provide a 25-minute corridor. After the preparations were completed and we had full confidence that there was no threat to the civilian population, the most important thing began - the destruction of the enemy target," the military added.
The 54th Brigade called the operation the fastest and most successful during the five years of the war in the Donbass. The military gave the operation the name "Checkmate", “because the game was won by us."
According to the 54th Brigade, as a result of the operation, the Ukrainian military destroyed the following enemy equipment: one anti-aircraft missile system 9k35 "Arrow -10",two BMP armored personnel carriers, one command armored carrier, five Ural military vehicles, four Kamaz trucks, one crane, one jeep.
The military also damaged six military Ural trucks and one Kamaz truck.
"4 armored vehicles and 19 units of wheeled equipment were destroyed. Twenty occupiers were killed and eleven others were wounded," the Ukrainian military said in a statement.
At midnight, July 21, a new "summer ceasefire" agreed by the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) at the meeting on July 17 took effect in the Donbas.
It was the 20th ceasefire since the beginning of the war in the Donbass. Kyiv accused the pro-Russian militants of violating this ceasefire on the second day.
The OSCE Special Representative to the Trilateral Contact Group Martin Sajdik called the "harvest ceasefire" in the Donbass the most effective compared to all previous ones. According to him, 30 days after the announcement of the ceasefire, the average number of violations of the ceasefire remains much lower than it was before. Also, no civilians were killed during the ceasefire. However, more than one Ukrainian soldier was killed.