KYIV/DONETSK. May 22 (Interfax) - Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the Donbas conflict zone in the past 24 hours and another 12 injured, says Andrij Lysenko, a Ukrainian presidential administration spokesman for the military operation.
"As a result of active hostilities over the past 24 hours we have lost three of our heroes and yet another 12 were injured," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday.
The biggest losses were sustained by the Ukrainian military in the Donetsk area.
For their part, sources in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said five militiamen and three local residents have been injured over the past 24 hours.
"The intensity of shelling has increased. The Ukrainian troops used rocket shells against Donetsk and Horlivka. As a result of the shelling, DPR army personnel losses [amounted to] five injured. Three civilians have been killed, two of them in southern areas," DPR deputy defense minister Eduard Basurin told reporters.
Heavy weaponry is being increasingly used near Romanovka "where Osa anti-aircraft weapons are concentrated, whereas Grad launchers are being secretly re-deployed to Mariinka," he said.
"[This] attests to Ukraine's reluctance to honor the Minsk agreements," he said.