Militants exacerbate situation near Zhelobok populated area in Luhansk region over past day

During Wednesday, June 7, Russian-occupation troops provoked a significant aggravation of the situation in the area of Zhelobok settlement in the Luhansk region, where they attempted to seize strongholds of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) and expand the bridgehead near Zhelobok, the press centre of the ATO headquarters has reported.

"The enemy used heavy artillery and mortars. The enemy tank was firing on the Ukrainian army positions from 14:20 until 21:00 from the direction of the temporarily occupied village of Frunze. And these actions occurred against the backdrop of information interference in the media space. The main informational reason was the unfounded accusation of the Ukrainian Army in the offensive in this direction," a report says on the official website of the press centre of the ATO headquarters on Facebook.

According to the report, attempts to seize positions of the Armed Forces were successfully repulsed and the fighters suffered losses - 25 people, 11 of whom were killed as of 22:00 of Wednesday.

"Eyewitnesses report that mobile operating units, bed-trucks for the removal of bodies of the deceased have been deployed and intensive traffic of ambulances has been observed in the occupied town of Stakhanov (Kadiyivka)," the report says.

Russian media reported that the leaders of militants controlling temporarily occupied areas of the Luhansk region accuse the Ukrainian side and other participants of the Minsk process.

In particular, they quote ORLO leader Igor Plotnitsky as saying that responsibility for the bloodshed in Donbas, along with Poroshenko, should be borne by the OSCE, as well as by the leaders of Germany and France, who do not use opportunities to force the Kyiv regime to seek peace."