Kiev has deployed more than 900 fighters of the Ukrainian nationalistic battalion “Azov” to the so-called “Joint Forces Operation” zone, as well as heavy mortars and artillery banned by the Minsk Agreements, Lugansk People’s Republic People's Militia spokesman Ivan Filiponenko said at a press briefing.
“Our intelligence spotted the arrival of two company tactical teams of the Azov nationalistic group numbering over 900 in the Novoluganskoye and Severodonetsk settlement area,” Filiponenko said. “Both groups have heavy armaments such as howitzers and mortars banned by the Minsk accords.”
The LPR People’s Militia does not rule out that “in the run-up to the visit (by Ukrainian president Vladimir) Zelensky to the USA for a session of the UN General Assembly, the nationalists will make attempts to unsettle the situation on the contact line,” he said.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. Conflict settlement relies on the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, signed on February 12, 2015 in the Belarussian capital by the Contact Group members and coordinated by the Normandy Four heads of states (Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine). The document provides for ceasefire and withdrawal of heavy weapons from the contact line.*i
