Kiev forces open mortar fire on Petrovskoye disengagement area

Donetsk, Jan 18 – DAN. Ukrainian forces fired mortar rounds at the Petrovskoye township where a pilot disengagement area is located, the DPR mission to the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said.

“A shelling was recorded at 5.15 p.m. from the positions of the Ukrainian armed formations targeting Petrovskoye-Bogdanovka direction, two mortar rounds of 82 mm caliber were fired,” the report reads.

No casualties have been reported.

Earlier the DPR People’s Militia said that it spotted Ukrainian military within the disengagement area.

The framework agreement on disengagement of forces in Donbass was signed in late September 2016. The objective was to disengage the warring sides to avoid the risk of clashes and shelling. The document set three pilot security areas: Petrovskoye in the DPR and Stanitsa Luganskaya and Zolotoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic. The disengagement was finalized at all the three areas by the late 2019.

The presence of weapons and military personnel is banned in those areas. The OSCE SMM patrols are monitoring the situation.

The Additional Measures to Strengthen the Ceasefire were signed at the Contact Group meeting on July 22 to reinforce and control the indefinite ceasefire in effect since July 21, 2019, the latest in the series of more than 20 reconfirmation and announcements of the “silence regime”. The package came into effect on July 27. *ot