February 22 was mostly quiet in the Donbas according to reports by local residents on social networks. All their reports originated from the Donetsk sector, none from Luhansk and Mariupol.
A quiet morning (all time EET, GMT+2):
01:07 Avdiivka: Quiet
03:02 Marinka: Quiet
09:30 Donetsk: Yet another rally in “DNR”. Schoolers are driven to the tank memorial, they stand in two lines up to Donbas Palace hotel, with flags
11:51 Horlivka: A single mortar [round]. Somewhere in the west
Sporadic military activity afternoon:
14:15 Marinka: Heavy booms in the boarding school direction [=east]
14:59 Donetsk Kirovskyi district: From time to time, a cannonade is heard from the northeast, like not too heavy
15:00 Donetsk Smolyanka: Something has f*cking boomed, impressive
15:00 Donetsk Shakhtarska square: Far single [booms]
15:21 Avdiivka: Something has boomed one time somewhere. Avdiivka could hear it
15:24 Donetsk Durna_Balka: 2 explosions at 2-minute interval
15:40 Donetsk Severnyi: We’ve listened to it, loud
15:41 Makiivka Vostochnyi: Multiple Kamaz trucks moved along the bypass road in both directions, their tactical signs were #61 in square, #35 in circle on white, #13 in triangle.
15:58 Donetsk: They’ve started to boom in Durna_Balka closer to Azotnyi
17:00 Donetsk Severnyi: We have listened to the west. From small arms to big [guns]. And it has calmed down again.
And an “ordinary” Donetsk evening begins:
19:15 Yasynuvata [pro-RU source]: “Not intense battle over all day. Now it became serious
”
20:03 Horlivka: Heavy rounds/impacts are heard north
20:31 Horlivka: Southwest: they fire bit by bit
20:31 Alchevsk: “It has f*cking boomed great” [= an air collector exploded at an oxygen workshop]
22:33 [Avdiivka]: As the darkness fell, small arms has been uninterruptedly working in the area from Promka to Kruta_Balka
23:19 Donetsk: A sound of explosion north
23:35 Donetsk: “Durna_Balka: Pretty tough battle is heard from Pisky/airport direction” “Horsad [hears it] too”
23:36 Donetsk: Heavy [booms] are heard in the northwest, I think it was incoming
23:55 Horlivka Stroitel: Southwest: a couple of heavy salvos
On February 22 the residents of Donetsk, Yasynuvata, Makiivka, Torez, Horlivka have experienced a mobile network outage:
12:12 Donetsk: Lifecell communication down [same reports from Makiivka]
12:56 Torez: “Kyivstar communication down too” “Both Lifecell and Kyivstar worked, then suddenly gone” [Kyivstar doesn’t operate in Donetsk since 2015 as its equipment was stolen to establish so-called “all republic mobile network operator Phoenix”] 18:17 Horlivka [pro-RU source]: “[Mobile] communication is being jammed. No chance to call to Ukraine from Horlivka”
19:25 Yasynuvata: It is hard to get each other by phone even within the town if you reach you can hear just every other word
Sometimes it may mean that mobile communication is being jammed by electronic warfare to hide the ongoing deployment of troops and military equipment, but this time Lifecell, the third largest Ukrainian mobile telephone network operator, reported, that its equipment has been damaged in the uncontrolled territory.
2 reports from the occupied territories concerning the civil trade blockade of the railway traffic to occupied territories:
15:17 Horlivka: Horlivka coke plant works. Trains go every night. Probably coke is transported to Russia or local ironworks
16:14 Alchevsk: Almost no smoke over AMK [=Alchevsk metallurgical plant]. 25% of January salaries have been paid at the plant
Alchevsk AMK plant stopped production on February 14 due to lack of iron-ore raw materials as a result of the blocking of railway tracks.
Ukrainian military: 54 attacks, one soldier wounded
The ATO Headquarters reported 54 attacks on February 22, no fatalities, one serviceman wounded.
- Mariupol sector
- Donetsk sector
- Luhansk sector
- 120mm mortars, grenade launchers were used to attack Novozvanivka
Update: From 00:00 to 18:00 on February 23, Russia’s hybrid military forces violated the ceasefire in the Donbas 41 times, which resulted in wounding two Ukrainian soldiers, the press center of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters reported.
The forest devastated by war at the 33rd “Stalingrad” checkpoint near Stanytsia Luhanska some 5 km away from the northeast outskirts of occupied Luhansk. The forest devastated by war at the 33rd “Stalingrad” checkpoint near Stanytsia Luhanska some 5 km away from the northeast outskirts of occupied Luhansk. Source
OSCE records more explosions in Donetsk Oblast and none in Luhansk
The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) has released its report, based on information received as of 19:30, 22 February 2017.
- The SMM recorded more explosions in Donetsk Oblast compared with the previous 24-hour period and no explosions in Luhansk Oblast.
- Donetsk Oblast: over 420 explosions were recorded compared with 341 during the previous 24-hour period. The vast majority of those explosions were recorded in the Svitlodarsk–Debaltseve area.
- Luhansk Oblast: fewer ceasefire violations overall, no explosions, compared with 26 explosions during the previous reporting period. While in “LNR”-controlled Kadiivka (formerly Stakhanov, 50km west of Luhansk), the SMM heard a single shot of small-arms fire 1-2km southwest.
- The Mission observed impact sites in Pikuzy (formerly Kominternove, 23km north-east of Mariupol).
- The Mission saw weapons in violation of the respective withdrawal lines. Its freedom of movement was restricted on both sides of the contact line.
- The SMM, in coordination with the Joint Centre for Control and Co-ordination (JCCC), facilitated and monitored repairs of critical infrastructure.
- The Mission continued to monitor the situation of civilians near the contact line and to observe blockade of railway tracks near Hirske, Bakhmut and Shcherbynivka.
- It monitored a peaceful demonstration of about 15,000 people in Kyiv.
Poroshenko: 2,608 Ukrainian soldiers killed amid Russian aggression
“As many as 2,608 Ukrainian soldiers were killed during the aggression, including 2,200 men from the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at the operational meeting of the administrative board of the Armed Forces, a gathering of senior military officials, commanders of the Armed Forces, commanders of combat units and formations in the General Staff of Ukraine on February 22.
The threat of full-scale aggression posed by Russia persists, as stated by Poroshenko, up to 50 thousand Russian troops have been deployed in close proximity to Ukrainian borders, they have about 470 tanks, over 1700 armored combat vehicles, about 390 artillery systems and 220 multiple launch rocket systems, about 490 combat aircraft, hundreds of helicopters, 24 warships. The President informed:
In the Donbas, Russia formed two army corps consisting of 6 mechanized brigades, 1 infantry brigade, 3 regiments, 2 artillery brigades and other units. Their management, manning and comprehensive maintenance is ensured by the aggressor – Russia. Regular units of the armed forces of the Russian Federation are additionally involved in these troops. About 3.5 thousand people already.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov believes that Russia’s war against Ukraine is a step in its preparation for the “big war”.
Presently, there are thirty-seven thousand Ukrainian soldiers at the front line in the Donbas, according to Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak.
Yanukovych denies he asked Putin to send troops to Ukraine
Fugitive ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych stated that he did not write to Vladimir Putin requesting that Russian troops be sent to the territory of Ukraine in 2014.
“I did not ask for Russian troops in Ukraine. That’s not true,” Yanukovych insisted in his interview with Russian and Ukrainian journalists in Moscow on February 21. According to him, it was not a letter but a “declaration” intended to “protect the people of the Donbas.” Yanukovych added that he did not betray his people, but tried to protect them within the scope of his power and authority.
At a meeting of the UN Security Council on March 4, 2014, Permanent Representative of Russia Vitaly Churkin stated that Yanukovych asked that troops be sent to Ukraine, UAwire reminds. Churkin presented a photocopy of the original letter. In late January 2017, the UN Secretariat passed the letter on to Kyiv and Yuriy Lutsenko, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, called Yanukovych’s letter to Putin an irrefutable documentary evidence which proves Yanukovych guilty of treason.
Yanukovych is not the only forgetful person in Russia, Russian lawmaker Iosif Kobzon has forgotten he received a “DNR passport” in 2016:
RU 79-year-old MP Kobzon denies he has a "DNR" "passport" he received in May 2016 https://t.co/kmwH8zB9v7 pic.twitter.com/yH7QNWMnoY
— English Luhansk (@loogunda) February 22, 2017
Meanwhile, on February 22 Russian media published excerpts from an “open letter”, allegedly sent by Viktor Yanukovych to US President Donald Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Russian President Vladimir Putin, PACE President Pedro Agramunt, Council of Europe’s Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani.
Yanukovych calls on leaders to “initiate the creation of a special commission of the Council of Europe to monitor the investigation of crimes committed on the Maidan” and offers to include the leaders of terrorist organizations “DNR” and “LNR” in the Normandy contact group. The fugitive president calls terrorist leaders “the representatives of the protesting side representing the Donbas people” in his letter.
