KYIV. Jan 30 (Interfax) - Debaltseve, Donetsk region, is under control of the Ukrainian army, and the fighting for Vuhlehirsk continues, deputy head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's department in the Donetsk region Ilya Kiva said.
"We are holding Debaltseve!!! There is fighting for Vuhlehirsk; half of the town is ours and fighting for the other half is fierce," he wrote on Facebook on Friday morning.
In his words, volunteer battalions of the police do not have enough ammunition and "the situation is serious but controllable."
In turn, Ukrainian parliament deputy (People's Front), Information Resistance Group leader Dmytro Tymchuk wrote on Facebook, citing operative reports, that the warring sides continued to exchange massive artillery fire on the perimeter of the Debaltseve sector over the past day.
The militia has reinforced their artillery with at least eight Grad rocket launchers and up to twelve cannons in that area, he said.
The enemy is also moving SAU 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers towards Horlivka, Tymchuk wrote. Four howitzers accompanied by two Ural trucks have headed towards Horlivka from Makiyivka, according to Tymchuk.
The Ukrainian army reported in the morning that militia mortars twice shelled Chornukhyne and four times Debaltseve and Popasna since 6 p.m. on Thursday. There were six Grad rocket launcher attacks on Debaltseve too.
The report as of 6 a.m. was posted on the army operation press service's page on Facebook.
Militia artillery delivered strikes on Ukrainian positions near Taramchuk, Pisky, Mykolaivka and Novotroitske, it said.
Militia artillery and mortars struck on Pavlopil and twice on Chermalyk in the Mariupol sector.
Artillery, mortars and anti-tank guided missiles struck on Krymske, Shchastya and Vilkhove in the Luhansk sector. Grad rocket launchers attacked Shchastya.
In turn, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said Ukrainian servicemen had been trapped in the Debaltseve pocket.
"Ukrainian servicemen have found themselves under tactical siege near Debaltseve, i.e. they are unable to bring in ammunition and take out their wounded without coming under attack," DPR People's Council Speaker Andrei Purgin told Interfax.
"Once the pocket is completely sealed, a humanitarian corridor will be provided consistent with all international conventions to those Ukrainian servicemen who will be prepared to lay down arms and leave this pocket," he said.
DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko promised to spare the life of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in Debaltseve and to let them go home if they lay down arms.