Donetsk combat zone expanding

Militants are increasingly drawing heavy weapons, 122mm and 152mm cannons and tanks, towards the Donetsk contact line, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman Andriy Lysenko has said.

"The geography of hostilities has slightly expanded in the Donetsk sector. In addition to the airport zone, gunfire exchanges continue in the south, near Mariyinka, and in the north, near Kamyanka. The enemy fired guns mounted on armored personnel carriers, a tank and a 120mm mortar on our positions near Horlivka and Svitlodarsk," he said at a press briefing in Kyiv.

Confrontations are ongoing in Shyrokyne near Mariupol, Lysenko said. The enemy is mostly using small arms, but Ukrainian positions have been attacked by 122mm artillery pieces too, he said.

A series of armed provocations have been staged in the Schastya area and in various places along the Bakhmutka road in the Luhansk region. A residential building was destroyed by mortars in Horne, he noted.