Ukrainian troops continue to shell Donetsk outskirts - TASS

 The Kiev government forces continued to shell the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) early on Sunday, including the self-proclaimed republic’s largest city of Donetsk, the DPR mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said.

At 02:16 Moscow time, Ukrainian forces once again shelled the settlement of Staromikhailovka on the western outskirts of Donetsk. It was the sixth shelling attack on the area since midnight. The settlements of Zaytsevo Yuzhnoye and Spartak, a village north of Donetsk, also came under mortar fire in the reported period.

After 03:00 Moscow time, six shelling incidents were registered in the republic, including in Dokuchayevsk, Staromikhailovka, Spartak, as well as villages Novolaspa and Leninskoye in the south of the republic.

Two more shelling attacks, targeting Dokuchayevsk and Yelenkovka, occurred at 04:25 and 04:37 local time.

The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine took a turn for the worse in the morning of February 17. The DPR and LPR reported some of the most intensive shelling by Kiev forces in recent months. The shelling damaged some civilian facilities.

On Friday, the leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LPR and DPR), Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of the republics’ inhabitants to Russia, citing the increasing threat of hostilities. All-out mobilization was announced in the republics on Saturday.

-