Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that 211 soldiers of the Ukrainian army were killed in Donbas in 2016.
“This year alone, 211 servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sacrificed their lives for peace and freedom of our country,” defending Ukraine from the adversary, Poroshenko said when delivering a speech in Mariupol, the Donetsk region, on Dec. 31.
Poroshenko went on to say that despite a slight decrease in fire intensity on the part of Kyiv’s adversary, “the silence agreed upon in Minsk failed to materialize”.
Two weeks ago, the opposing force attempted to take two strongholds of the Ukrainian army near Luhanske, a town at the Svitlodarsk bulge, Poroshenko said. The Ukrainian forces then repelled the attacks and “also staged a counterattack”, Poroshenko added. As a result, the adversary suffered heavy losses and the Ukrainian army improved its dispositions, he said.
A tense situation also remains in Shyrokyne, the place where Kyiv’s adversary has recently used almost the entire spectrum of weapons, except for rocket artillery, Poroshenko said.
