Ukrainian military deploys more military hardware and personnel in the contact line in Donbass.
Photo: AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
The Ukrainian Military and Security Forces send military hardware and personnel to the contact line in Donbass, Deputy Commander of the Operational Command of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, said at a briefing on Thursday.
According to Basurin, six units of infantry combat vehicles and armored vehicles were found one kilometer from the line of contact near Belaya Kamenka; three the D-30 122-mm towed howitzers, 8 armored vehicles and 20 soldiers, as well as 5 trucks with ammunition both for heavy armament and for small arms – half a kilometer from the contact line near Granitnyy. He also noted that “an arrival of three trucks with ammunition was noticed in the area Novoselovka Vtoraya, eight kilometers from the line of contact.”
Meanwhile, head of the Working Group on the Exchange of Prisoners of War of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Olga Kobtseva, said that Kiev’s statements about the readiness to exchange prisoners are nothing more than a PR stunt.
On Thursday, head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasiliy Gritsak, said that the Ukrainian Security Forces are ready to exchange more than 400 prisoners with the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR.
“Such a statement is another PR stunt, another attempt to politicize and popularize the process of exchanging of prisoners. Making such statements, Ukraine is once again trying to find a loophole not to perform the 5th and 6th points of the comprehensive set of measures: to liberate persons, detained on the territory, controlled by Ukraine, for involvement in the events that took place in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” Kobtseva told the RIA Novosti news agency.
She also stressed that Gritsak’s statement on the readiness to exchange more than 400 people, whose fate is known, does not correspond to the principles of the exchange according to the ‘all for all’ formula.
“Kiev does not provide real information on LPR’s requests about persons, held on the territory, controlled by Ukraine. We know where the people are from their relatives, or close friends, or from people, who were with them in prison,” Kobtseva added.