Poroshenko: Separatists have begun firing artillery at targets far beyond the front line Friday, August 19, 2016 4:25:00 PM

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that the separatists' large-caliber artillery has begun firing at targets that are far beyond the conflict line. He said this during his visit to the city of Brody.

“The enemy is trying to disrupt the Minsk process by making absolutely irresponsible statements about the exit from the Normandy negotiation process, and by dramatically increasing the intensity of the shelling of the positions of our troops in eastern Ukraine. There was a record number of attacks tonight. A significant number of them included shelling with large-caliber weapons. Earlier attacks were from small arms and mortars and only concentrated on the collision area. Now then enemy has concentrated artillery firing on command posts and depots which are located eight, 12 and sometimes even 20 kilometers from the collision line,” Poroshenko said.

According to him, the West has expressed that they will support Ukraine. However, there is still a strong likelihood that the conflict will escalate.

“We have not excluded a full-scale Russian invasion from all sides. Our armed forces are ready to repel the enemy in the east of the country where they have occupied Donbas, as well as along the administrative border with the Crimea. We are ready for whenever the provocations will take place,” he said.

Poroshenko also said that the Chief of the General Staff, Viktor Muzhenko, is in the Donbas.

Over the past day, Russian-backed separatists opened fire on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine a total of 96 times. These include 45 attacks in the Donetsk region, of which 10 of them were from heavy artillery, and 32 attacks in the direction of Mariupol.

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