Russian Foreign Minister: “There is a lot of concern about the increase in Donbass firing”… Continued fighting between government forces and rebels

Ukraine ‘provoked by Russia to create a pretext for invasion’… Russia “don’t intervene in Donbass”

A house in the village of Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, destroyed by shelling

(AP = Yonhap News) On the 17th (local time), officials from the Joint Center for Monitoring and Coordination of Armistice and Frontline Stabilization Issues (JCCC) suffered damage together with residents at a house in a village in Lugansk, eastern Ukraine, destroyed by shelling on the 17th (local time). is looking at Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels exchanged artillery shells in the eastern Donbas (Donetsk, Lugansk Oblast) region on the same day, and both sides claim that the other side attacked first. 2022.2.18 [email protected]

(Moscow = Yonhap News) Correspondent Yoo Cheol-jong = Russia has expressed concern over the escalating armed conflict in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a press conference after meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who was visiting Moscow on the 18th (local time), according to the Rianovosti news agency. expressed concern about the rapid increase.

“I am very concerned about the reports of a sharp increase in firing with weapons banned in the Minsk Agreement yesterday and the day before yesterday and the day before in connection with the situation on the Donbas Front (the front of the confrontation between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels in the Donbas region),” he said. “He said. Denis Pushlin, the head of the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) government proclaimed by pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region, said on the same day that “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will soon issue an order to attack the government forces (massive),” and sent a large number of Donetsk residents to Russia. He said he would evacuate.

It is reported that armed clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels have been occurring since the evening of the 16th in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

The rebels claimed that government forces attacked villages in rebel-controlled areas using mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns, and Russia supported the announcement.

However, the Ukrainian government claimed that the rebels attacked the government camp first, but did not respond in order not to become involved in the provocation.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors the ceasefire in the Donbas region, said that there were about 530 explosions on the front of the confrontation between government forces and pro-Russian rebels from the evening of the previous day to the afternoon of the 17th.

However, it did not say from which side the attack was made.

The fighting between government forces and separatist rebels continued on the 18th.

Ukraine and the West have warned that Russia may engage in a ‘self-made play’ in the Donbas region, disguised as if the government forces attacked the rebels first in order to create an excuse for the invasion of Ukraine.

It is said that the Russians in the Donbas region were harmed by the government military attack, and that Russia could invade the Donbas region under the pretext of protecting its compatriots.

Olexi Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Commission, which corresponds to Ukraine’s National Security Council (NSC), said in an interview with his TV station on the 17th that there was a provocation from the Russian side in the Donbas region, “The purpose of the provocation is if we respond strongly. They are trying to criticize us on that basis.”

In this situation, he stressed, Ukraine must show restraint so as not to be swept away by provocations.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Olexi Rezhnikov confirmed on the same day that it was not planning any armed action or military operation against rebels in the Donbas region.

But Russia, which insists it is not intervening in the Donbass conflict, continues to warn that Ukrainian government forces could use military action to recapture rebel-controlled areas.

Ukrainian government forces and separatist rebels signed the Minsk Agreement, an armistice agreement, at the ‘Normandy-style summit’ (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany four-party summit) held in Minsk, Belarus, in 2015, but it has not been properly implemented.

Since then, intermittent fighting between the two sides has continued.

Russian foreign affairs

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