Concern is growing in European foreign ministries that Russia is preparing to recognize the sovereignty of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in Ukraine, amid a massive military build-up on Ukraine’s eastern border. The Russian presidential decree could come before the weekend. Russia invaded east Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Western revolution in Kiev and has kept the region under occupation ever since.
The Donetsk People’s Republic is a self-proclaimed state in the eastern Ukrainian oblast of Donetsk. Only the partially-recognized South Ossetia and the Russian-backed proto-state Luhansk People’s Republic recognize the proto-state.
- UAF shelled DPR positions in Leninskoe with 120-mm artillery
- UAF targeted the Trudovskaya mine with 82-mm artillery
- UAF targeted Leninskoe with grenade launchers
- UAF shelled Zheleznaya Balka with a BMP-1
- The 128th Mountain Assault Brigade from the Transcarpathian region was deployed to the south of the DPR, near Mariupol. The unit replaced the 36th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which went to the point of permanent deployment.
- DPR forces shelled UAF positions near Pivdenne with 120-mm artillery
- DPR forces targeted UAF positions near Starohnativka with grenade launchers
- DPR forces targeted UAF positions in Zolote-4 with heavy machine guns
- DPR forces targeted UAF positions in Vodyanoe with heavy machine guns
- DPR forces shelled UAF positions in Pesky with 120-mm artillery
