Over the last two years 10,000 Ukrainians have been killed, more than 20,000 wounded by the Russian terrorist groups and some 1.8 million people have been forced to leave their homes, First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) Mykhailo Koval has said.

The press service of NSDC quoted Koval's speech at the seventh meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and the Senate of the Republic of Poland: "In defiance of the Minsk agreements, Russian military place firing positions in residential neighborhoods of the occupied settlements and using heavy weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to be shelled.."

He said Russian occupation forces continue to disregard the Minsk agreements in terms of the withdrawal of heavy weapons.

"From the beginning of 2016 some 699 cases of tanks presence, artillery systems of over 100mm caliber, multiple-launch rocket systems and mortars have been verified near the delimitation line. The return of multiple launch rocket systems to the delimitation line remains possible," Koval said.

He said Russian troops were preparing to resume active offensive actions in order to enter the administrative boundaries of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and in order to create a land bridge to Crimea.

"The international sanctions imposed against Russia remain effective, but they are not sufficient to compel it abandon the aggressive plans concerning Ukraine," Koval said.