Ukraine-Russia, tensions rise: night of attacks on Donetsk

Ukraine-Russia crisis, tension in the Donbass is growing. The Ukrainian military bombed six populated areas in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic overnight, including its largest city of Donetsk. This was stated, according to Tass, by the mission of the DPR at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC). Read also According to the report, published on the mission’s Telegram channel, the cities of Dokuchayevsk, Oktyabr, Sosnovskoye, Aleksandrovka and Spartak were bombed between 21:04 and 23:52 Moscow time. Donetsk was bombed at 12:03 am on Sunday and shots targeted the chemical factory. The situation along the contact line in eastern Ukraine worsened on the morning of February 17. The DPR and the LPR reported some of the most intense bombings in recent months by Kiev forces. The bombing damaged some civilian structures, and at least 49 violations of the ceasefire by the Ukrainian armed forces were reported yesterday in the territory of the breakaway republic of Lugansk. “Heavy weapons have been used in some of them,” the mission said on its sTelegram channel. The attacks targeted 27 residential areas of the republic. On Friday, leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of republicans to Russia, citing the growing threat of hostility. While yesterday they called the population to ‘general mobilization’ in the republics. According to NATO “all the signs indicate that Russia is planning a large-scale attack on Ukraine”. “The troops are not being withdrawn as Russia says and new troops are being added,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, adding that there are indications of Russian attempts to create a pretext for the attack. However, Stoltenberg always said he was in favor of a negotiated solution. “We want Russia to change direction and sit at the table with us,” he stressed.