DONETSK, November 8 (RIA Novosti) — The Ukrainian artillery has opened fire at the eastern city of Donetsk, with mortar rounds landing in residential areas, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports from the scene.
“In the second half of the day, Ukrainian artillery resumed the shelling of militia’s positions in the Kievsky, Kuibyshevsky and Petrovsky districts of Donetsk, and it is residential areas that are suffering most of all,” our correspondent said late on Saturday.
“Militias have been forced to return the fire to suppress the gunposts in the city of Avdiivka, as well as in the villages of Pisky, Tonenke and Opytne,” a source at the defense forces’ military headquarters told RIA Novosti.
A fierce battle has sparked off on the western outskirts of Donetsk, close to Pisky, where pro-Kiev armed forces have set up a camp.
According to Donetsk armed forces, the troops loyal to the government in Kiev also attacked the city of Kirovske east of Donetsk, and the villages of Krymske, Smile (pronounced as Smee-le) and Frunze in the west of the adjacent Luhansk region. There have been reports of civilian casualties, our correspondent says.
In mid-April, Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The United Nations estimates that more than 4,000 people have been killed since the start of the crackdown.
This comes despite the September 5 ceasefire. The warring parties have been accusing each other of violating the truce.
