Events in Ukraine on 26 January 2015.

Briefly about the most important today's events in our digest of events

that have happened in Ukraine today

General Staff: Terrorists hold in captivity 184 servicemen

184 soldiers are still held in rebels' captivity, the acting speaker for the General Staff, Vladislav Selezniov, said at a briefing, according to Interfax Ukraine.

According to him, this information is official.

He also noted at a briefing on Monday that, according to official data, there were 309 soldiers in hospitals, 19 of whom were badly wounded.

As reported earlier, the Centre for Releasing of Captives said that about 30 Ukrainian servicemen had fallen prisoners in the last week.

According to it, 20 of those were captured in the area of the Donetsk airport, and 11 - in the area of Krasny Partisan (belonged to the 20th battalion).

Mass Media: A suicide murderer blows himself up near Maryinka; one dead and several wounded

A car with a suicide murderer exploded on Sunday evening at a roadblock near Maryinka resulting in one soldier dead and two others wounded.

As reported by " Dumskaya ", the 28th Odessa Guards' Mechanized Brigade suffered losses.

According to some sources, another soldier of the 28th Mechanized Brigade was killed in an artillery attack near the settlement of Krasnogorivka situated near Maryinka.

Further details are being ascertained.

Headquarters: Rebels repulsed near Mayorsk; 115 attacks within the past 24 hours

Rebels carried out 115 attacks on Ukrainian military and inhabited settlements in the past 24 hours, the ATO press centre reported on the morning of January 26.

"Gunmen attempted to assault our positions near Mayorsk from the side of Gorlivka at 18.05 (Sunday). Having met with a resounding rebuff, terrorists had to retreat," the statement reads.

Insurgents continued to shell army positions overnight. The largest number of attacks was registered in the Lugansk direction. In particular, rebels fired on the settlement of Stanyza Luganska 7 times with artillery, once with Grad volley fire systems and once with tanks.

Verkhnya Olkhivka was attacked three times with artillery, mortars, and machine-guns. Additionally, the settlements of Novotoshkivka, Petrivka, Tryokhizbenka, Slovyanoserbsk, and Frunze were also shelled heavily.

In the Donetsk direction, the settlements of Novomychailivka, Opytne, and Tonenke were fired upon with Grad MLRSs and the villages of Maryinka (four times) and Krasnogorivka (once) - with mortars and machine-guns.

Gunmen carried out two artillery attacks on Popasna and Troitske (Pervomaysk and Debaltseve district) with Grad MLRSs, and one attack on Debaltseve, Novogorodske, and Luganske.

The settlements of Popasna, Bulavinske, Olenivka, Mayorsk, Vuglegirsk, Rozsadky, Troizke, Ridkodub, and Chornukhine were mortared and shelled.

In the Mariupol direction, there were two shell strikes registered between 19.00 and 19.30 near the village of Orlovske.

Enemy UAVs were detected near Nikishyno.

Headquarters: 7 killed, 24 others wounded in the past 24 hours

7 military were killed, and 24 others wounded in the area of the anti-terrorist operation in the past 24 hours, the acting spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vladislav Selezniov, announced as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

Source: PACE recognizes Savchenko and agrees to grant her immunity

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's governing body (PACE) decreed with a majority vote at a meeting on Monday to grant immunity to parliamentarian Nadiya Savchenko, a source from the governing body told the European Truth in Strasbourg. The source says that the meeting of this organisation was held as usual in accordance with the policy of "non-disclosure of information".

"A decision regarding the recognition of Savchenko's mandate was made by a majority vote in spite of the fact that she was imprisoned and unable to arrive in person to participate in the meeting in Strasbourg", the interviewee told the European Truth.

"The case is to be passed to the committee assembly now, who should grant international immunity to Savchenko as a representative of PACE. Then, we will give it a go," he added.

Rebels: There was no "attack" on Mariupol

The Defence Ministry of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of Donetsk has denied having gone on the offensive against Mariupol, according to Russian "Interfax" with a reference to a statement made by PRD representative Eduard Basurin.

"There were no attacks on Mariupol," Basurin said.

As reported earlier, the leader of PRD gunmen, Alexander Zakharchenko, personally spoke the day before about the launch of an offensive against Mariupol.

"We have launched an attack on Mariupol ... We hope to finish entrapping (Ukrainian military) in Debaltseve in a few days," Zakharchenko said.

Artillery controller admits that Mariupol was shelled by Russians

The shelling of Mariupol was carried out by a Russian artillery battery, led by a Russian officer known by the nom de guerre Pepel, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Valentyn Nalyvaychenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Monday.

He described the shelling of Mariupol as a crime against humanity, and also exhibited a video testimony given by the detained artillery controller Sergei Kirsanov, who said that Russian officer Alexander, with the nom de guerre of Pepel, commanded the Russian artillery battery which carried out the shelling.

"At 0730 on January 24 came the order from the Russian officer who led the militant artillery battery. There were a total of five shelling attacks… Until 14.20 they were adjusting fire. At 14.20, why did they stop shelling Mariupol civilians? Because they had received information that the OSCE mission had gone to the Novoazovsk district from which the Russian artillery was clearly operating," said Nalyvaychenko, citing the video testimony given by Kirsanov.

Nalyvaychenko stressed that multiple rocket launchers and Tyulpan (Tulip) mortars were hidden in the village of Markyne, Donetsk region.

After the shelling, Russian artillery battalions received a direct command through a satellite communication system to go to the Russian border and take four Grads, which were used, and a Tyulpan (Tulip) mortar with them, Nalyvaychenko said.

Earlier, the SBU press centre reported that the counterintelligence service intercepted a conversation by DPR terrorist leaders, who said they planned to carry out the shelling of Mariupol. In this conversation, a DPR militant gives a command from Donetsk to use multiple rocket launchers against civilians in Mariupol, and his accomplice Pepel says he would comply with the order to the shell a densely populated residential area of the city, and then reports the result.