Meanwhile, 27 Russian tanks have been observed near the town of Debaltseve in Donetsk Oblast. Earlier this hardware was observed near Miusynsk and Vakhrusheve (both in Luhansk Oblast), Tymchuk said.
In another Facebook posting the same day, Tymchuk wrote that several Russian servicemen had gone missing in Donetsk and that separatists saw this as evidence of the presence of pro-Ukrainian guerrillas in the city.
Tymchuk also reported that fighting had broken out between various groups of militants and they had also fired on units of the Russian army near Donetsk, Dokuchayevsk and Krasnyy Luch using heavy weapons.
Tymchuk noted that the distribution of Russian passports had been stepped up in the Donetsk people's republic, in particular among elderly people. In addition, Tymchuk reported that a consignment of chevrons for uniforms of a so-called "Kharkiv people's republic" had been delivered to the headquarters of the self-proclaimed Luhansk people's republic.
[hr]Map by Alya Shandra
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