Over the past 24 hours, the armed formations of Ukraine opened fire at the populated localities of the Republic seven times, official representative of the DPR PMD Rinat Aigistov reported at the briefing in Donetsk today, on January 21.

“On the Gorlovka front, militants of the 59th and 58th AFU brigades fired at Zaitsevo (southwards), the Gagarin mine’s village and the 6/7 mine’s village with 82mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, heavy machine guns and small arms.

On the Donetsk front, from the positions of the 56th and 28th brigades, 82mm mortars and grenade launchers of various types were engaged against Vesyoloye, the Trudovskaya mine’s village and the Donetsk airport.

On the Mariupol front, militants of the 10th brigade fired at Sakhanka with anti-tank grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms.

Information on the destruction of civilian infrastructure and casualties among civilians is being specified,” Rinat Aigistov said.

He also pointed out that by shelling the territory of the Republic, the AFU seek to provoke units of the People’s Militia into opening return fire and accuse them of violating the ceasefire.

“We do not exclude that the increase in shelling by Ukraine is due to the arrival of OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Edi Rama to the Joint Forces Operation zone. For our part, we are rigidly observing the ceasefire and do not respond to the provocations of the Ukrainian party,” Rinat Aigistov said.