Monday results in the occupied territories of Donbass. The highlights
In the area of the Joint Forces Operation on February 17, the armed formations of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire 7 times, - the JFO headquarters reported. The enemy fired at our positions from 120 mm and 82 mm mortars prohibited by the Minsk agreements, as well as from grenade launchers of various systems and heavy machine guns. There are no casualties among the joint Forces members as a result of the enemy shelling.
The Russian occupation command intensified the provocation of tension in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. This was reported by the official website of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. Reportedly, restrictions on observing the ceasefire for lead elements of the 1st (Donetsk) and 2nd (Luhansk) army corps of the RF Armed Forces have been lifted. In addition, in order to impose panic among the local population, Russian propagandists are spreading reports about the alleged preparation of JFOˈs forces and means for the offensive in the form of the so-called "Blitzkrieg" and other false information in order to discredit the command and personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Let us recall that earlier, the leader of the "DNR" came up with why the next lie about the AFU offensive was not confirmed, having dumped everything on the past rains.
Workers of two workshops went on strike at the Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant (AMP), located in the occupied part of Luhansk oblast. As reported by the "Luhansk inside" blogger, on February 13, the railway workshop, the workers of which made a number of demands to the management (the strike is currently ongoing), went on strike and completely stopped its operation due to wage arrears. The blast-furnace shop is on strike for the same reason. This information was indirectly confirmed by separatist media. According to the local journalists, wives of the AMK employees gathered to picket the "administration" of the "LNR" leader Leonid Pasechnik and wrote an appeal to him. "We are tired of beating our head against the wall of misunderstanding and indifference!.. For the second year now, the companyˈs salary has been constantly delayed. The debt is two months as of today. At the same time, the prices are high, we all need to feed our families… We are afraid for the lives of our husbands, who leave for the workshop without basic means of protection, and we have already forgotten about sick leaves and trips to sanatoriums", - the collective appeal of the workersˈ wives to the "LNR" leader said. Let us recall that in December 2017, the Industrial Union of Donbass Corporation de facto lost control of the Alchevsk production assets and office premises. According to unofficial information, control over the AMP was seized by the Abkhazian ZAO Vneshtorgservis, which is associated with fugitive Serhiy Kurchenko.
Less than 40% of children born in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbass have a Ukrainian certificate. This was stated by Anna Dudynska, lawyer of the Stabilization Support Services Charity Fund, in Kyiv at the presentation of an alternative report for the UN. "We have a situation where no more than 37% of children born in the temporarily occupied territories today have certificates of Ukrainian standard. But these are our citizens and therefore, this is an extremely important issue - having a document confirming their citizenship", - the expert noted. According to her, the main recommendation is to introduce an effective administrative out-of-court procedure for recognizing birth/death in the temporarily occupied territory.
A former member of the Donetsk Peopleˈs Militia grouping of the "DNR" militants voluntarily surrendered to the Selidove police, - the police of the Donetsk oblast reported. In September 2014, the 27-year-old unemployed resident of Selidove supported the separatists. The man arrived in Donetsk and joined the "Donetsk Peopleˈs Militia" illegal armed formation. They promised a high salary to the new recruit, gave out weapons and appointed him duty at a checkpoint near Yasynuvata. There, along with other militants, he checked the vehicles and documents of people crossing the checkpoint. As the ex-gang member told the police, he realized after a few days that he was dealing with bandits who are badly related to each other and to the civilian population. Having not received the promised money, the man gave up his weapon, left the checkpoint and returned to Selidove.
In connection with repair work, the Luhanskvoda enterprise controlled by the "LNR" militants cut off the water supply to occupied Zorynsk, Artemivsk and Dovzhansk (Sverdlovsk), and also reduced the water supply to a number of other settlements, separatist media wrote. So, the water supply to the cities of Zorynsk and Artemivsk was stopped, and it was also reduced by 60% to the cities of Stakhanov, Kirovsk, Brianka and Zymohirya, - the report said. Water supply will also be limited in the settlements of Dolvhe, Stepove, Administratyvnyi (connections in Alchevsk), Zhylovka, Sofiyivka, Bayrachky, Zamkivka, Kypucha, Komsomolskyi, Sabivka, Annenka, Lomovatka and Chervonyi Prapor.
Militants of the so-called "LNR Ministry of State Security" detained "spy" Viktor Filipchenko, who allegedly acted to the detriment of security of the "republic" on the instructions of the Right Sector "extremist organization", separatist media wrote. "On behalf of member of the Right Sector Ukrainian far right organization Ihor Husiev, Filipchenko was to collect information of a military-political, economic and social nature with a view to its further use to the detriment of security and defense of the Republic… The foreign intelligence aspirations were stopped, entry into the territory of Luhansk Peopleˈs Republic was prohibited to these persons", - the militantsˈ statement said.