OSCE observers said they had recorded 500 explosions along the line of contact in Donbas since yesterday evening, while today their intensity has decreased, RIA Novosti reports.

By 12.20 Moscow time on February 17, 500 explosions were recorded, and then another 30 explosions. According to the head of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, Yashar Khalit Cevik, the decrease in the number of explosions may indicate a decrease in tension. However, he stressed, “immediate de-escalation is critical.”

Meanwhile, the LNR reported on the shelling and the aggravation of the situation on the line of contact. The representative office of the LPR at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire (JCCC) stated that on February 17, the security forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired four times at the territory of the LPR from mortars prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

At the same time, the Ukrainian authorities accused the forces of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic of shelling a kindergarten in Novaya Kondrashovka. However, the People's Militia of the LPR called these accusations fake.

bbabo.Net