Briefly about the most important today's events in our digest of events
that have happened in Ukraine today
47 shell strikes on ATO forces including on inhabited settlements, too
47 shell strikes with different types of cannons, mortars, volley fire batteries, tank on positions of ATO forces were recorded in the past 24 hours.
"The Donetsk airport remains an adamant stronghold on rebels' way," ATO press-centre said.
"The militants continue to ignore the safety of the civilian population in Donbas. We would like to inform you that, in total, 10 shell strikes on inhabited settlements were registered across the territory of Lugansk region within 24 hours. We continue to check information on casualties among civilians", the centre informs.
Moskal: Armed clashes with rebels going on in Stanyza Luganska
Rebels shelled a number of inhabited settlements in the territory controlled by the government in the past 24 hours and overnight, the press-service of the Lugansk region governor, Gennady Moskal, reports.
He specified that they meant first of all the settlements of Krymske, Artema, Tryokhizbenka, Chornukhine, and Verkhnya Vilkhova.
No significant destruction and casualties among the civilian population have been reported so far.
The situation in Stanyza Luganska is very tense.
Merkel: Nothing will excuse the annexation of the Crimea and Russia's intervention in Donbas
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there’s no excuse or justification for Russia’s annexation of Crimea and signalled she’s ready for a long confrontation with President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
“We need patience and staying power to overcome the crisis,” Merkel said in a speech to parliament in Berlin today. Economic sanctions on Russia “remain unavoidable” as a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine fails to hold, she said.
As government forces and pro-Russian separatists battle in the country’s east, Germany’s goal is keeping Ukraine sovereign and whole, while Russia’s actions threaten “the peaceful international order and breach international law,” she said to applause from lower-house lawmakers.
“None of this justifies or excuses Russia’s annexation of Crimea,” she said. “None of this justifies or excuses the direct or indirect participation in the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia is breaching Ukraine’s territorial integrity.”
“We are sparing no effort in trying to reach a diplomatic solution in talks with Russia”, she said.
2 servicemen died in the past 24 hours
2 soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours in the area of the anti-terrorist operation, a spokesman for the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing.
He added that 2 others were wounded.
2 more columns of Russian materiel crossing the border
"The enemy is rotating manpower. In particular, on the one hand, we recorded a partial withdrawal of Russian troops, but at the same time, according to the latest data, five columns of about 80 vehicles were spotted in the past 24 hours moving through the Izvaryne checkpoint in the direction of Lugansk. The lion's share of these vehicles is cars and buses with personnel and ammunition," a spokesman for National Defence Council, Andriy Lysenko, said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He noted that this could be interpreted as a full-scale rotation.
"The fact that somebody leaves the area does not necessary mean that they leave Ukraine and nobody would replaces them, because we have information on arrival of reinforcement," he said.
The press-centre for the anti-terrorist operation reported earlier that over 1,000 servicemen of the Russian army stationed in rebel-held territories in eastern Ukraine had recently returned to Russia.
National Security and Defence Council: Two Russian jets violated the airspace of Ukraine
Air Defence Forces of Ukraine detected two Russian military jets violating the air space of Ukraine, a spokesman for Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council Andriy Lysenko reported at a briefing.
He added that violations of the air space was conducted by two Russian jet aircraft near the settlement of Stanyza Luganska; they intruded into the territory of Ukraine by 0,5 and 5 km respectively.
Dzobak Volodymyr
РОЗДУМИ ПРО НАДВАЖЛИВЕ або ЧОМУ НАШІ ОЛІГАРХИ СТАЛИ МОГИЛЬЩИКАМИ НИНІШНЬОЇ УКРАЇНИ
