LUHANSK. Feb 17 (Interfax) - Head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik said early on Thursday that massive artillery strikes, in particular, using 120mm mortars, have been carried out on LPR territory.
"Barbarically and cynically, the Ukrainian Armed Forces began massive strikes on civilians in the LPR early this morning. The enemy did not hesitate to fire 120mm mortars and artillery. While the West is concerned about the so-called 'Russian invasion of Ukraine' [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's army is shelling Donbas," Pasechnik is quoted as saying by his press service.
At the same time, the LPR People's Militia on Thursday called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) and the international community to force Ukraine to implement the Minsk Agreements. "We call on the international community and the monitoring mission to force the Ukrainian armed formations to implement the commitments they have undertaken. The current tendency to aggravate the situation, through the fault of the Ukrainian leadership, can cross out all previously reached agreements," LPR militia head Yan Leshchenko told reporters on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, Leshchenko said that eight residential buildings had been damaged by the shelling of LPR territory by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces opened fire on five LPR settlements, namely, Sokolniki, Zolote-5, Veselenke, Nizhne Lozove, and Donetske in the early hours on Thursday, the LPR representative office to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of the ceasefire said. According to the representative office, the Ukrainian side used 82mm and 120mm mortars, AGS and SPG grenade launchers, and large-caliber machine guns.
Following the shelling, a low-pressure gas pipeline in the village of Mykolayivka was damaged, the press service of Luhanskgaz, a state unitary enterprise, told Interfax. "Due to the emergency situation, customers living in the Yubileyny residential area were disconnected from the gas supply system," it said.
According to the LPR militia, a Ukrainian drone, which helped the Ukrainian military correct the artillery fire on the populated locality of Donetskiy, was shot down.
At the same time, during the shelling from the LPR positions, shells hit the building of a kindergarten in the populated locality of Luhanska, injuring two women and a man, the press center for the Ukrainian army's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) headquarters in Donbas said on Thursday.
According to the Ukrainian military, the number of enemy shell attacks in the JFO area in Donbas increased to 34 as of 2 p.m. local time on February 17, as two Ukrainian troops were injured in the shelling. They were hospitalized in moderately serious condition.