Ukrainian army loses two soldiers, with eight injured and one captured in Donbas
Two Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen have been killed and eight have suffered injuries in the Donbas conflict zone in the past 24 hours.
"Over the past day, two servicemen of ours were killed, four servicemen suffered injuries, and another four sustained concussions in the hostilities," Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman for Anti-Terrorist Operation issues Andriy Lysenko told a press briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.
One Ukrainian soldier was captured in hostilities on the Svitlodarsk bulge on Sunday, he said.
"It has been confirmed that one of our servicemen was captured in combat on the Svitlodarsk bulge on December 18," he said.
According to Lysenko, hostiles have not ceased fire on the Svitlodarsk bulge, and a number of artillery and mortar attacks have been observed since the morning. They also attempted an assault, but the attempt was averted, he said.
"After the storm failed, the hostiles staged five armed provocations during the day with use of grenade launchers of various types. When the attacks were boldest, our servicemen returned fire using weapons which are not prohibited by the Minsk agreements," the spokesman said.
Another hotbed in the Donetsk sector is Avdiyivka, where hostiles have used light weapons and mortars in the industrial zone, Lysenko said, adding that seven shelling incidents were seen in the area over the past day.
The hostilities have shifted to Popasna in the Luhansk sector, Lysenko said, adding that hostiles were broadly using light weapons and employed mortars late at night. There were one armed provocation staged in each of Stanytsia Luhanska and Syze, he said. In all, the truce was broken 13 times in the Luhansk area.
The number of shelling incidents has halved to 13 in the Mariupol sector, yet hostiles continue to actively employ heavy weapons, including 120mm mortars and 122mm artillery, he said. Combat has resumed west of Dokuchayevsk, where more than 60 mines were fired during the day and armored vehicles and small arms were repeatedly used. In addition, hostile mortars and grenade launchers shelled Krasnohorivka three times, he said.
