Armed forces of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) have confirmed that the Ukrainian troops established new positions near the village of Zolote in Donbas, which is under partial control of Kiev, a LPR defense ministry spokesman said on Friday
LUHANSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st January, 2021) Armed forces of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) have confirmed that the Ukrainian troops established new positions near the village of Zolote in Donbas, which is under partial control of Kiev, a LPR defense ministry spokesman said on Friday.
The LPR has on multiple occasions accused the Ukrainian military of using the ceasefire to set up new positions and lay mines in the area adjacent to the line of contact.
"We have registered new positions of the Ukrainian armed forces' 92nd Brigade, 130 meters [426 feet] in length in the area of disengagement of forces and hardware near the Zolote settlement," the spokesman told reporters, adding that the information was also confirmed by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission.
The spokesman added that an explosive device was detonated near the city of Popasna in the Kiev-controlled area near the Donbas line of contact on Thursday.
Since April 2014, the Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation against the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. Prospects for peace have been discussed in various formats, including during the meetings of the contact group in Minsk, which, since September 2014, has already adopted three documents regulating steps to de-escalate the conflict.
In July 2020, the eastern Ukrainian peace process saw a breakthrough when negotiators signed an exhaustive list of measures on how to maintain the peace in the volatile region. The measures include a blanket ban on deploying military equipment or using drones in reconnaissance, sabotage, or offensive missions in sensitive locations. In an unprecedented step, a system of holding ceasefire violators accountable was also agreed upon by the sides.
