[Ian Smith son]

Ukraine’s forces open fire on positions of pro-Russia fighters in Donetsk: Report

Ukraine’s forces on Saturday opened fire on positions of pro-Russia fighters in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, reports say.

“The Ukrainian forces opened fire against the DPR militant positions near the airport at around 9 a.m. [local time],” the Donetsk News Agency quoted a DPR military source as saying.

“During the shelling, the enemy was firing 82-millimeter mortars, grenades and small arms,” the source said.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Andriy Lysenko said two Ukrainian military servicemen have been injured in the special operation zone in Donbas over the past 24 hours.

“This [the injuries] happened because of the detonation of a tripwire mine near Zaitseve,” Lysenko said.

Kiev’s military press center claimed in a separate message posted on its social media page that eastern Ukraine fighters had committed multiple violations of the terms of a shaky ceasefire between the two sides of the conflict.

“Over the past 24 hours, they have opened fire 38 times against the Ukrainian Armed Forces' positions,” the press center said on its Facebook page.

PressTV-'Ukraine?s forces hit pro-Russia positions'

DPR representatives have rejected Kiev's proposal to send UN Security Council peacekeeping mission to Donbas.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples' Republic (DPR) has rejected Kiev's offer to send UN Security Council member states' representatives to the region in order to discuss a peacekeeping mission in Donbas, the DPR envoy to the Minsk peace talks said Friday.

"I would like to remind [everyone] that there is a package of measures for implementing the Minsk agreements, which was signed on February 12, 2015. According to article 3 of the document, control and verification are entrusted to the special OSCE monitoring mission. No representatives from the UN or from other peacekeeping organizations are provided for," Denis Pushilin said as quoted by the Donetsk news agency.

Kiev's offer is its latest attempt at revising the Minsk protocols, Pushilin added, stressing that such instances are non-conductive to implementing the peace agreement.

Read more: Donetsk Peoples' Republic Rejects Kiev's UNSC Peacekeeping Force Proposal