Fighting broke out in the early hours of this morning near Starognatovka, around 20 kilometres east of Volnovakha. According to Ukrainian reports, Russian-backed forces went on the offensive, supported by tanks and artillery. After repelling the assault, Ukrainian troops have now advanced several kilometres to the east, taking the first new positions in this area for almost a year.

Yaroslav Chepurnoy, a press officer for the Ukrainian military headquarters in Mariupol, told 0629.com.ua that around 400 Russian-backed fighters attacked near Starognatovka at 3:25 this morning, following the shelling of Ukrainian positions near Nikolaevka, Starognatovka, Bogdankovka and Novogrigoryevka.

Andriy Tsaplienko, a reporter for Ukraine’s TSN, wrote on his Facebook page at 3:56 am that he had received reports on the fighting from Aleksandr Samarsky, deputy commander of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade, who said that the fighting was “practically hand-to-hand.”

By 4:53, Tsaplienko reported that the attack had been repelled and that units from the 72nd Brigade had counter-attacked, moving towards the Russian-backed fighters’ forward positions.

At 6:15, he posted a triumphant update (translated by The Interpreter):

“Our guys are in Novolaspa!!! For the first time since Febrary, the ATO forces are not on the defensive. The 72nd Brigade has beaten the enemy out of the settlement, which the ‘DNR’ considered theirs. Until this morning.

However Vladislav Seleznyov, spokesman for the Ukrainian General Staff, told UNN that Ukrainian forces had not entered Novolaspa, but had taken control of important heights a little to the west, nearer Starognatovka.

Seleznyov stressed that, according to the Minsk agreement, Novolaspa was on the separatist side of the demarcation line.

Sergei Misyura, a commander in the 72nd Brigade, wrote on Facebook that Ukrainian forces had, in fact, taken control of Novolaspa after fierce street fighting, but had been ordered to withdraw so as to avoid being seen as violating the Minsk agreement.

While Seleznyov claimed that no Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, Misyura reported that one member of the 72nd Brigade had been killed.

Yana Zinkevich, chief of Praviy Sektor’s (Right Sector’s) medical and rehabilitation unit, claimed today that three members of the paramilitary group (who had come to the aid of the army during the attack) and four of the 72nd Brigade had been killed.

According to Zinkevich, five Praviy Sektor members and six soldiers from the 72nd and 14th brigades were wounded.

She posted photos from a field hospital:

At 13:17 local time, Seleznyov claimed that the battle had ended, with one soldier killed and nine wounded.

Furthermore, he denied the presence of any volunteer units (i.e. Praviy Sektor fighters) on this section of the front line.

The official version of events, published on the Ministry of Defence website, is that a formation of Russian-backed fighters, up to a battalion tactical group in size, attacked Ukrainian troops near Starognatovka at approximately 3:25 am. They were supported by 10 tanks and 10 BMPs, as well as other vehicles.

The defence minister and chief of the General Staff informed the President and representatives of the OSCE, after which the decision was taken to bring Ukrainian artillery forward towards this section of the front.

Seleznyov said that both the OSCE and Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) had been notified of the Ukrainian artillery response to the assault.

As Ukrainian forces counter-attacked, the Russian-backed fighters were forced back 2-3 kilometres, with the 72nd Brigade seizing “key heights, which had, until then, been controlled by terrorist groups,” said the MOD.

Around an hour after the MOD statement was published, the Mariupol Defence Headquarters reported that fighting continued near Novolaspa.

The assault comes amidst a general escalation in violence. Over the whole of the conflict region, the Ukrainian military reported 127 attacks yesterday.

UNIAN translates this morning’s ATO Press Centre report:

“The last day in the Donbas conflict zone differed from the previous days of the past weeks by the largest number of militant attacks on our positions. From 18:00 Kyiv time to midnight on August 10, the enemy was intensifying fire along the demarcation line. At about 18:00 Kyiv time on August 9, the occupiers fired mortars and small arms on our fortified position near the village of Novgorodskoye not far from the militant-held city of Donetsk. In the evening, they also fired 120mm mortars twice on the town of Avdeyevka, and at midnight it was attacked by tanks. From 19:00 to almost 01:00, the mercenaries fired 122mm artillery systems on the town of Krasnogorovka,” the report says. The situation in the Artyomovsk sector is also tense. From 21:40 to 22:00, the militants fired Grad multiple rocket launchers from the village of Kalinovo on ATO forces in the village of Troitskoye. At 21:45 Kyiv time, they also were firing Grad rockets on the Ukrainian troops in the village of Rassadky. “Illegal armed groups fired mortars and 122mm artillery systems four times on the village of Krymskoye in Lugansk region from 23:00 to 00:30. At around midnight, the Russian proxies started firing artillery systems and mortars on ATO forces and residential areas in the village of Starognatovka near the Ukrainian-held city of Mariupol,” the press center said.

This morning’s assault by Russian-backed forces is particularly noteworthy given that this is an area in which large deployments of Russian military force have been observed this year.

The OSCE has repeatedly reported observing concentrations of armour in towns along the eastern banks of the river Kalmius, including Komosomolskoye and Razdolnoye. Furthermore, uniformed Russian military personnel were spotted by OSCE monitors in Petrovskoye, a short distance north of today’s fighting.

In June, the Ukrainian Dnipro-1 Battalion released footage of a newly constructed military base around 12 kilometres south-east of Novolaspa. The speed and professionalism of the construction indicates it was performed by Russian military engineers.