Live Updates: DPR Ready for Contact Group Meeting With Kiev If There Are Concrete Proposals

BERLIN (Sputnik) - NATO is boosting the level of combat readiness of thousands of servicemen amid the ongoing tensions with Russia, German media reported.

The NATO Response Force (NRF) must be ready to move to the conflict zone within seven days, instead of 30 as it was before, the DPA news agency reported, citing sources.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - On Friday, the Ukrainian side made three attempts of sabotage in Donbas, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the people's militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), said.

According to Basurin, about 200 shells and mortar shells were fired at the DPR this morning, not counting grenades and small arms.

"But the main danger was different: there were three attempts to carry out sabotage. These were in Yelenivka and two in Horlivka," Basurin said on the air of the Rossiya 1 broadcaster.

BERLIN (Sputnik) - The German Bundeswehr increased the level of readiness of its troops within the NATO rapid reaction force for a possible escalation, the German Defense Ministry said.

"At the request of the NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Wolters and in close coordination with the Allies, the federal government has increased the level of readiness of the Bundeswehr forces participating in the Response Force," the statement says.

For the transfer of NATO forces, a decision of the NATO Council is required, the ministry recalled.

It added that "the federal government thus remains committed, together with the allies, to a two-track policy towards Russia — credible readiness for defense and reinsurance of allies, while being open to dialogue."

After specific proposals were requested from the Ukrainian side to resolve the situation, "the Ukrainians immediately canceled the meeting," the statement says.

"We are not ready to meet solely for the sake of a meeting, for some kind of imitation of negotiations," Moskovsky stressed.

The armed forces of Ukraine deployed a huge amount of tubed artillery to the line of contact, and its use in Donetsk and Lugansk will lead to huge casualties, Rodion Miroshnik, a representative of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group, said.

"There was shelling of a small village called Sanzhary. It is located between Debaltseve and Pervomaisk on the line of contact, 122-millimeter artillery was used there, that is, we are talking about the use of tubed artillery," Miroshnik said on the air of the Rossiya 1 broadcaster.

"On the line of contact, we see a huge amount of cannon artillery 122-152 millimeters (caliber), which can strike at a distance of 20-40 kilometers. Let me remind you that just 7 kilometers are between the line of contact and the center of Donetsk, and 12 kilometers from the positions where these weapons are deployed to the center of Lugansk. That is, if this artillery is used now, then we will not avoid huge bloodshed and a huge number of victims," ​​he said.

He noted that Donbass was being pushed toward a military resolution of the conflict, because Ukraine was not ready to negotiate with the LPR and the DPR.