Kiev forces have made 37 attempts to conduct aerial reconnaissance in the contact line area over the past 24 hours, Lugansk People’s Republic People’s Militia spokesman Ivan Filiponenko said at a press briefing at the Lugansk Media Centre.
“Over the past 24 hours, we recorded 37 attempts by Ukrainian gunmen to conduct aerial reconnaissance along the whole contact line,” Filiponenko said.
Earlier, he said that commanders of the Ukrainian army’s 30tth and 24th separate Mechanised Brigades have been planning an offensive in case of the beginning of aggression against the Republic. The LPR People’s Militia intelligence reported that Ukraine planned to launch the main attack from the 30th Brigade location. The Ukrainian army’s 30th Separate Mechanised Brigade operates in the Svetlodarsk Salient area and 24th Brigade is deployed in the Zolotoye area.
LPR militia chief-of-staff Yan Leschenko said that Ukrainian forces are preparing for switching over to hostilities in Donbass while careful hiding the massing of forces and hardware in the zone of the so-called joint forces operation. Leschenko also said that the Ukrainian army at this point is not ready to launch an offensive along the whole contact line.
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*s
