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With Debaltseve captured, separatists turn south

Kiev’s military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh says separatists have shelled Ukrainian military positions east of Mariupol 13 times in the past 24 hours. The attacks, Stelmakh says, came from heavy artillery and mortar-guns, hitting targets in the town of Shyrokyne, about 15 miles east of Mariupol. See map (in Russian).

Officials in the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have yet to comment on the alleged attacks in Shyrokyne.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Azov volunteer battalion said one of its soldiers died in the separatists’ attacks on February 18.

Stelmakh says the separatists have committed 46 violations of the Minsk ceasefire in the past 24 hours, pointing to attacks on Avdiivka and Pisky, north of Donetsk, and Kryms'ke, northwest of Lugansk. 

“The brunt of the attack was focused on Shyrokyne,” Stelmakh said.

Ukrainskaya Pravda

For the past several days, the conflict’s most intense fighting has taken place in and around Debaltseve, which separatists say they captured on February 17. The next day, on February 18, the Ukrainian military withdrew from the city. Officials in Kiev insist that the retreat was orderly and planned.

In late January 2015, it seemed Mariupol would become the war’s new epicenter, after Donetsk separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced an offensive in that direction. Instead, fighting moved to Debaltseve.

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