DONETSK/KYIV. Aug 21 (Interfax) - The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) has denied that the Ukrainian forces have advanced in the Horlivka sector in Donbas, describing Ukraine's claims as a farce.
"The Ukrainian Armed Forces' menacing statements about encircling Toretsk are nothing more than a farce and an attempt to pacify Ukrainian combatants. The city of Dzerzhinsk [Toretsk] has always been under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As to the populated locality Shumy and the takeover of ten square kilometers of area near Horlivka, such statements have only one goal: to demonstrate to the Ukrainian electorate and the international community that the Donbas crisis is in a hot phase, in order to cancel elections the scheduled to take place in Ukraine in March 2019," a spokesperson of DPR's operational command told Interfax.
Toretsk is about 25 kilometers from Horlivka, which is held by the DPR militia.
Since the signing of the Minsk Agreements, Ukraine has not advanced a single meter, taking over only the populated locality Shyrokyne, which should have become a demilitarized area, the spokesperson said.
Ukrainian units regained control of Shumy, near Toretsk, a few days ago, Dmytro Tymchuk, a Ukrainian MP from the People's Front faction and a coordinator of the group Information Resistance, said on Monday.
"That resulted in [...] the complete formation of a security area around the city of Toretsk and the creation of a buffer area around the Mayorske checkpoint. The Joint Forces have taken full control of Shumy and a dacha community of this populated locality, and the road along the water pipeline and a dacha community of the populated locality Shakhty. [...] A total of over ten square kilometers in the so-called 'grey zone' have been taken under control," Tymchuk said in a statement posted on Information Resistance's website on Monday.
"The enemy resisted and tried to win back some of its positions," the group said. "Junior Sergeant of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Dmytro Ukrainsky was killed in the clash," it said.
The Ukrainian forces said on August 16 that they had taken 15 square kilometers on the disengagement line in the Donbas crisis area.
These areas in the grey zone were already in Ukraine's control, according to the DPR.