DPR prepares to hold large-scale exercises in Donbas
Pro-Russian militants in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) announced preparations for “command post training exercises” in the Donetsk region. The “exercises” will start on Tuesday, September 11, involving more than three hundred units of military equipment and four thousand troops.
“The command post training exercises on terrain are planned to be held starting September 11, 2018 on the Republic’s military training ranges,” reports DAN news, citing Deputy Operational Commander of the DPR, Eduard Basurin. The militants’ commander also stated that “all exercises will be held away from the line of contact in compliance with the Minsk Agreements.”
On August 22, the participants of the Tripartite Contact Group agreed on a permanent ceasefire in the Donbas from Wednesday, August 29. The so-called “School Truce” will be the sixteenth ceasefire since the beginning of the war in eastern Ukraine. All the previous truces were systematically violated by pro-Russian militants, including the “harvest ceasefire” which was broken the very first day.
On April 30, President Petro Poroshenko announced the official end of the antiterrorist operation in eastern Ukraine and the beginning of the Operation of the Joint Forces. On March 16, the president appointed Lieutenant-General Serhiy Naev as Joint Forces Commander.