Kiev forces shell militia positions in east Ukraine almost 40 times - local defence ministry
MOSCOW (TASS) -- Ukrainian military action has violated
ceasefire arrangements in war-torn eastern territory almost 40 times over the last 24 hours, a Defence Ministry spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said on Monday.
"For 37 times the Ukrainian side has shelled the republic," the Donetsk News Agency quoted the spokesman. "Once again we have registered the enemy use artillery."
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Some Russian soldiers are quitting the army because of the conflict in Ukraine, several soldiers and human rights activists have told Reuters. Their accounts call into question the Kremlin's continued assertions that no Russian soldiers have been sent to Ukraine, and that any Russians fighting alongside rebels there are volunteers.
Evidence for Russians fighting in Ukraine – Russian army equipment found in the country, testimony from soldiers' families and from Ukrainians who say they were captured by Russian paratroopers – is abundant. Associates of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent Kremlin critic killed in February, will soon publish a report which they say will contain new evidence of the Russian military presence in Ukraine.
Until now, however, it has been extremely rare to find Russian soldiers who have fought there and are willing to talk. It is even rarer to find soldiers who have quit the army. Five soldiers who recently quit, including two who said they left rather than serve in Ukraine, have told Reuters of their experiences.