Main news of Donbas: Mined and destroyed Shyrokyne; A Ukrainian serviceman captured by militants
09:13 / 01.03.2016 — Новости Донбасса
There were 71 attacks on ATO forces’ positions in the Donbas in the last 24 hours. ATO Headquarters press service reports that there were 36 shellings in Donetsk direction, 22 in Mariupol direction and 13 in Luhansk direction.
A Ukrainian serviceman was taken captive by militants of the illegal “DPR” faction. Andriy Lysenko, Presidential Administration spokesperson on ATO related issues, said during a briefing that on February 25, a car with two serviceman tripped a mine and as a result one soldier died. His corpse and the second soldier were seized by militants.
Mine clearance in the part of Donbas where the armed hostilities took or are still taking place will take not less than 10-15 years and “several billion hryvnyas”. This information was reported by Serhiy Zubarevsky, head of the group coordinating bomb-threat response of the Department of Environmental Safety and Mine Action of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
Almost all TV channels in the village of Novohrodske (the Donetsk region) which is controlled by the Ukrainian govermnent are either Russian or separatist ones. The village is ten kilometres away from occupied Horlivka, but, according to servicemen, out of 18 TV channels which can be watched there only two are Ukrainian.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine informed last week, on February 24, that the village of Shyrokyne had been left by militants. The village is 20 kilometres away from Mariupol (the Donetsk region). According to the words of Ukrainian servicemen, the militants mined nearly every house there before leaving.
Stanyslav Krasnov, head of civil corps “Azov-Crimea” was detained by the Security Service of Ukraine. He is accused of collaboration with Russian special forces.
Aleksandr Khodakovsky, commander of “Vostok” illegal armed formation, urges Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the “DPR” leader, to continue active armed hostilities in the Donbas. “We should increase our military potential - we have not signed any agreements with Ukraine about limiting it. Thus, we should invest money into our own army”, wrote Khodakovsky in his blog.
Olha Kobtseva, the “LPR” representative, said that an additional captives’ exchange (“2 to 1” format) between Ukraine and the “LPR” faction is to take place on March 3. According to Kobtseva’s words, the exchange is to take place on a bridge near the town of Schastya at 1 p.m. on March 3.