Russian-backed forces in the Donbas attacked Ukrainian troops with mortars, artillery, small arms, and tanks over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Andriy Lysenko said at a press conference on March 24.
No Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the attacks, but three were wounded, Lysenko said.
The Donetsk area remains the most active, with 42 shelling incidents recorded over the past 24 hours. Repeated heavy clashes were recorded at frontline positions to the south-west and east of the city of Avdiyivka in the government-held part of Donetsk Oblast, in particular near the Butovka coal mine and the village of Kamyanka.
“The occupants are using tanks and mortars, and the shelling takes place both day and night,” Lysenko said.
“The peak of the fighting came between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., when the militants were shelling several of our defense lines at once.”
While shelling army positions, the militants hit the roof of a private house owned by elderly people in the old part of Avdiyvka. It was the fourth time the building has been hit, Lysenko said.
At least 60 mortar rounds were fired at Ukrainian army units defending the area around the destroyed Donetsk airport, and a clash lasting two-and-a-half hours occured overnight in the village of Zolote, near the occupied city of Horlivka.
There was a clash involving tanks and other armored vehicles, as well as other heavy weapons, overnight into March 24 near the towns of Krasnohorivka and Mariinka just west of occupied Donetsk.
“The third barrage of shelling was the heaviest, lasting between 10 p.m and midnight. At that time the militants fired ten 122-millimeter rounds and 28 120-millimeter mortar shells.” Lysenko said. Another exchange of small arms fire was recorded near Novotroitske, some 40 kilometers south of Donetsk.
Further south, in the Mariupol operational theater, the devastated town of Shyrokyne saw mortar and tank fire against Ukrainian positions, as well as the use of Grad-P single rocket launching systems. There was sporadic mortar fire near the villages of Vodayne and Hnutove just northeast of Mariupol.
Near occupied Luhansk, Russian-backed proxy forces provoked exchanges of fire near Stanytsi Luhanska, Krymske and Novotoshkivske, although no heavy weapons were used, Lysenko said. Twenty-five mortar rounds were fired near Popasna, he said.
