Ukraine loses control of 28 towns, villages since truce as five soldiers killed overnight

Kremlin-backed
forces have also reinforced their formations in the Svitlodarsk-Artemivsk area
of the region by moving two convoys of infantry and armor consisting of 18
armored personnel carriers, seven tanks and several trucks closer to the front
line, he said on Facebook on May 6.

A
combined Russian-separatist reconnaissance group struck a transport vehicle
with a rocket-propelled grenade in a village near Artemivsk in Donetsk Oblast
on May 5, killing at least five serviceman and wounding 12, according to Ukraine’s military spokesman Andriy Lysenko.

Overnight
starting at 6 p.m. on May 5, Kremlin-backed militants fired 42 times on
Ukrainian positions, according to a statement on the Defense Ministry’s
website. They primarily used heavy artillery, including 152-, 122- and
120-milimeter mortar rockets. Twelve enemy drones were also spotted in the last
24 hours.

Kyiv
has completely or partially lost control of 28 towns and villages since Feb.
18, three days after the latest cease-fire went into force, according to a Cabinet of
Ministers resolution published on May 5 that updated the list. It lost control
over 15 towns in Artemivsk and three in Yasuvatsky districts.

Ten
additional towns were listed as on the front line and are only partially
controlled. Hotspots Shyrokyne, 20 kilometers east of Mariupol, and Avdiivka
where Ukraine’s largest coke producer is, are constantly shelled along the 450-kilometer (280-mile) front line.

Photo taken on Dec. 9, 2014, displays a buildings, damaged by night shelling by pro-Russian separatists in Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, controlled by Ukrainian forces. (AFP)

“If
Russia continues to destabilize the situation in eastern Ukraine and will not
abandon the illegal annexation of Crimea, the European Union should strengthen
sanctions and to consider the possibility of providing defensive weapons and
other military assistance to Ukraine,” reads a May 5 statement by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament.

More
than 6,100 soldiers have been killed since mid-April when the Moscow-engineered armed
uprising started in Donbas. In addition, more than 1.2 million people have been
internally displaced, including 158,000 children, according
to the United Nations.

“Russia’s
continued support for separatist rebels (in the east of the country)
perpetuates war and lawlessness, hurting all people in the region,” said Isabel Santos, human rights chair of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly. “This is a humanitarian
crisis that must be addressed here and now. Political resolution is required,
but a solution to the human suffering has to be a priority.”