Ukrainian shelling leading to extremely tense situation on Donbass frontline

Ukrainian shelling left 200 miners trapped underground in Donetsk – YouTube

As a result of the shelling, 207 miners remain underground. The Ukrainian shelling left Zasyadko mine without power, 207 miners remain underground. Emergency Situations Ministry conducts rescue operations, are brought aboard.

“Today, as the result of the shelling, Zasyadko mine has been left without power. Due to inactive elevator machinery, there are people remaining underground. At this moment, Emergency Situations Ministry brought emergency generators aboard and is conducting rescue operations. As you can hear, the shelling is still continuing, explosions can be heard far away,” said Dmitry Astrakhan, the DPR People’s Militia press service war correspondent.

“We went for the duty, the mine is deenergized. We were waiting for power. 0.28 We were told there is none, all boars are off-the-line,” said Maxim, a miner from Zasyadko mine in Donetsk.

“Zasyadko mine has been left without power. 203 miners remain underground, four people are in the cage which was coming up. At this moment mine-rescuers are working there, the evacuation is taking place now. There is a difficulty due to the cage’s freezup, therefore it is coming up slower than it should,” said Alexey Kostrubitsky, the DPR Emergency Situations Minister

Donetsk Defense TV News Report, 30.1.2017

The situation in republic on Monday has got much tenser, and not just on
the contact line. Since the last evening, and up to now, the shelling
through all the directions won’t stop. Ukrainian forces launched more
than 211 tank shells and mortar rounds onto Donetsk, Makeevka, Gorlovka,
Yasinovataya outskirts and the south of the DPR.

According to
the DPR Operational Command the Ukrainian positions launched onto the
Republic several hundreds of IFV and mortar shells. Anti-aircraft guns,
large calibre machine gusn and small arms were also used.

Vladimir Bednyak will cast light upon the situation in Makeevka frontline district.

“This
is how Ukrainian truce looks like. On January 29, since the early
morning the fight on the Makeevka outskirts has begun and here’s the
result. On the Chekalova street the house № 20 was hit. The house was
destroyed completely and can’t be repaired. According to the experts,
the heavy artillery prohibited by Minsk accords was used. The explosion
was so powerful that metal fence and parts of the hose walls appeared on
the tree branches. Fortunately, the hosts of the house were out.
According to the neighbours, they have gone at 2014,” said the
corrsepondent Bednyak.

“I live in the house nearby the damaged
building. I don’t know what it was. It started at 6 o’clock in the
morning, they were shooting and woke us up at 10 by the direct hit in
the neighbourhood. Yesterday I came home from the business trip, was
repairing Lugansk and they wished us “Good morning” in that way,” said
Sergey, the citizen of Chapaevskye district.

“The direct hit of
the house took place 4 hours ago. I heard two or three hits, I was in
the yard, than got to the basement. And God saved me. The pieces of the
shells damaged my car, broke windows and damaged the roof,” said Sergey
Mironrnko, another citizen of Chapaevskye district.

At the
Chastopolskaya street the direct hits were also recorded. As a result of
the direct hit, houses 9 and 10 were damaged. Apart from it the fight
still goes on. Several minutes ago we’ve heard the sound of a hit
approximately in two kilometres from here.

All day long the explosions were violating the silence and the village inhabitants are scared, if not shocked.

“The
child was frightened, I ran to him and hided him in my arms. The child
is 2,5 years old. Nobody knows what it was…. And then as I got out on
the street, the yard was cowered with ground and there was that funnel
and there is a bigger funnel on the next street. Nobody knows what it
was,” said one of the citizens.

Over the 24 hours, the enemy
shelled the Republic territory more than 1,000 times. According to the
DPR Defence ministry, the situation got much worse. For 24 hours almost
all the DPR frontline settlements including Yasinovataya, Gorlovka,
Zaitsevo, Dokuchaevsk and others were shelled.

DONi News Agency

Ukrainian troops shelled civilian houses in Kuybyshevskiy, DPR

Lugansk Defense TV News Report, 31.1.2017

Emergency Statement, DPR Military Command, 31.1.2017

The military command of the People’s Militia in the Donetsk People’s Republic gave on Tuesday emergency statement concerning extremely tense situation in the Donbass frontline. Statement is given by Eduard Basurin, the vice-commander of the DPR People’s Militia, in Donetsk capital.

“I would like to make an urgent report on the situation in the industrial zone area. Yesterday, at 8 p.m. ceasefire was introduced at the enemy’s initiative. After that the Ukrainian army started a treacherous offensive near the industrial area, being backed with up to three platoons of personnel, in order to seize the stronghold and block the road Donetsk-Gorlovka.

We were forced into opening back-fire, and consequently caused losses to the enemy – up to 15 dead and 30 wounded personnel. After that at 4 a.m. the enemy undertook another breakthrough attempt in the same area by means of The Right Sector forces. They reached the minefield and we were again forced into opening backfire. As a result, losses among the enemy troops made the same up to 15 dead and 30 wounded.

At the moment you can here the sound of gunfire. The fire is being launched from the Ukrainian side. We made a decision on ceasefire since 7 a.m. as the enemy wasn’t going into offensive.

And as for heating and power supply problems… A power line was broken; three districts were partially left without electricity supply – Kuibyshevsky, Kievsky and Voroshilovsky districts. Repair works have been almost finished so far.

13 boiler rooms were knocked out because of the accident. Four in the Voroshilovsky district and nine in the Kievsky district. They will start operating once power supply is resumed. As for the 14th – a boiler room №10 was targeted by a direct shell-hit yesterday. Heating was cut off to seven multy-storey houses in Severny village of Donetsk. In this case the situation with repair works is tougher.

Concerning shell-hits, so far we know about the following artillery hits in Donetsk – Kuibyshev St. 42, Tovarnaya St. 7 (the roof was targeted by a direct hit). We also registered shell-hits at the cross-roads of Svetlov and Partizanskaya streets near the railway station. There occurred a power disruption.

And I received new data now, houses sustained damage on Dnipropetrovskaya St. 9 and 11 in Makeyevka as a result of the artillery shelling”.

Kiev loses 17 men killed and wounded while trying to re-break southern DPR position
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 – 16:00

Ukrainian law enforcers today have attempted the second breakthrough of the DPR forces’ positions in the southern sector of the front near Kominternovo village, having lost 17 killed and wounded, reports the DPR Operational Command.

“At 14:30 the enemy made the second unsuccessful attempt to attack our positions near Kominternovo village with forces of up to one platoon supported by two infantry fighting vehicles,” the Command noted. “Due to the return fire from the positions of the DPR Armed Forces units the enemy suffered losses: seven people killed and over 10 wounded.”

A few hours ago Kiev fighers tried to break through the positions of Republican forces in the area of Kominternovo village of Novoazovskiy region. The enemy attack was stopped, and the soldiers’ losses amounted to about 14 killed, the exact number of the wounded was not disclosed.