Ukraine officials and a group of Russian-backed rebels have accused each other of shelling and destroying a few local villages.
The tensions between Ukraine’s military and the rebels have lingered in the eastern Donbass region for several years but now appear to correlate with the growing Russian military presence on Ukraine’s border.
The rebels alleged on Thursday that members of Ukraine’s military “continue to flagrantly violate the ceasefire regime using heavy weapons,” according to CBS News. The separatists also alleged that Ukrainian forces opened fire on several villages at least four times in the last 24 hours in the Donbass region, where the rebels control two districts.
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Ukrainian military officials denied the rebel’s allegations, claiming that the separatists had shelled the villages, including a kindergarten.
While both party’s claims were unable to be verified, initial reports imply that the mortar firing resembles the ceasefire violations that have regularly occurred over the last eight years, reported Reuters. The skirmishes have routinely occurred since 2014, after Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. While the Minsk Accords halted a much larger war, the conflict continued to simmer in the region, including several explosions or mortar firings that often led to injuries or death.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which tracks military encounters in the Donbass region, reported several ceasefire violations in the districts controlled by the rebels on Wednesday, including at least 76 explosions.
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The Ukraine-Russia border conflict has continued to grow more tense. While Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that he has withdrawn his forces from the borders, NATO and U.S. officials have not seen sufficient evidence to substantiate Putin’s claims.
