Kiev starts stating that Minsk Agreements are due to expire

The validity of the Minsk Agreements is expiring, as self-defense forces of the proclaimed republics of Donbass shell at the positions of Ukraine’s Armed Forces more and more frequently, Anton Mironovich, the speaker of the ATO headquarters told 112 Ukraine TV-channel.

“The situation and the tendency of bombardments are rather flexible. A day before yesterday we registered 18 bombardments, while yesterday, this number increased to 36. There are almost no bombardments in daytime, while after 6:00pm up to the midnight, they shell nearly 20 times. The tendency of bombardments shows that the Minsk Agreements are expiring. They try their best to make us retaliate, so that relevant agencies register this and blame Ukraine’s Armed Forces and other groups that are fulfilling tasks in the ATO zone. We do not give then such a chance,” he said.

Yesterday, he said, civil cooperation groups delivered coal for the residents of Maryinka, as there is no gas supply there and people have to use coal and wood to heat their homes. In addition, Mironovich said, foodstuffs, warm clothes for soldiers were delivered to Berdyanskoe.

EADaily reported earlier that heavy armory of Ukraine’s Armed Forces have been pulled to the engagement line. Ukrainian security forces have deployed 434 pieces of armored vehicles to the division line from the Donetsk People’s Republic. During the “passive offensive”, the Ukrainian forces have recently taken 7 settlements in the buffer zone. The Ukrainian army is shelling territories of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics on a daily basis. Earlier, first deputy of the UN secretary general Jan Eliasson said that the situation is getting worse in Donbass and further escalation of the conflict is highly possible.