The Ukrainian government and Russian state-controlled media exchanged fresh accusations of ceasefire violations near the country’s eastern border on Friday, APA reports citing CNBC.
In a statement on Facebook, the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation said 20 ceasefire violations had been recorded in eastern Ukraine on Friday as of 9 a.m. local time.
The JFO alleged that 15 of those violations included the use of weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements, which Russia, Ukraine and pro-Moscow separatists signed in 2014 and 2015 to prevent a war in eastern Ukraine. No fatalities were reported.
Ukraine also claimed that separatist forces were “placing their artillery systems near residential buildings.” The JFO added: “United forces control the situation and respond appropriately to potential threats from the enemy.”
Meanwhile, Russian state-controlled media agency RIA claimed on Friday that Ukrainian government forces had launched three shelling strikes against Russian-backed separatists.
CNBC was unable to verify either report. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday said its mission in Ukraine had reported almost 600 ceasefire violations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, substantially higher than the 153 violations reported during the previous period.
The east of Ukraine, near the Russian border, has long been the scene of low-level fighting. The OSCE has regularly reported violations of the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine during the eight-year conflict, in which around 13,000 people have died.
Russian officials reportedly circulated a document at the U.N. council meeting on Thursday which Reuters reported made allegations that war crimes had been committed in Ukraine, and accused the Ukrainian government of “exterminating the civilian population” in the country’s east.
A U.S. official dubbed those accusations as “categorically false,” according to Reuters.
It came after the Ukrainian government and Russian state media made contradictory accusations about shelling strikes on Thursday, with a school and a kindergarten in eastern Ukraine being hit by attacks.
The U.S. has warned that Russia could use false claims, including claims about the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as a pretext for an invasion.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday that the shelling in eastern Ukraine was a “false flag operation designed to discredit the Ukrainians.” He warned that more of this was likely in the coming days.
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