Ukrainian officials said Thursday that the area around the Avdievka water filtration plant has been cleared of mines, according to Russian languages news reports.
Until Thursday, the issue with restoring water service concerned the mortar delivered mines, shot there by Ukrainian and Russian backed rebel forces. The minefield was but one obstacle in getting the plant back on line.
The other issue has been the ongoing fighting between the two warring parties, which have been exchanging artillery fire since the beginning of the war 30 months ago, but only in the last 18 months contesting the area in Avdievka. It is unclear at the moment just how the issue will be resolved.
Earlier reports by Ukrainian media said that Avidevka and nearby towns were running a severe water shortage due to the plant shutdown. The water plant previously had been declared a gray zone by Ukrainian and Russian ceasefire observers, where neither side would be allowed to contest.
Last year Ukrainian forces moved their front line into the gray zone that included the water plant. Stray artillery rounds, albeit not very many, had hit the plant, forcing the workers, most of them women, to stop work at the plant.
Recent attacks by Ukrainian forces coupled with counterattacks by rebel forces have shifted the fighting to the water plant, but it wasn't until an armed group belonging to the Ukrainian volunteer forces "Azov" moved a fire team including a mortar team into the plant itself -- after it was hit by artillery fire and abandoned -- that fighting ceased, and help in restoring the plant began.
Meanwhile, elsewhere along the line of contact, fighting continued.
Ukrainian media reported that rebel mortar fire hit the southern Donetsk towns of Vodyanoye and Gnutovo, while 122mm rocket artillery rounds hit Vodyanoye, according to a news report in lb.ua.
Near Donetsk city, rebel 120mm and 82mm mortar fire hit Avdievka and Butovka mine.
A separate lb.ua news report said that rebel forces used tank gunfire on Ukrainian positions in Avdievka. The report said that the tank rounds destroyed several residential buildings, but did not elaborate on how many.
A news account published on the website of korrespondent.net said that armed men, presumably Russian backed separatists seized control of a football stadium on Thursday. The report notes that the seizing was likely part of the rebel nationalization of property in Donetsk and Lugansk in the wake of an economic blockade imposed by the Ukrainian government.
Rebel media reported that on the night of June 1st and June 2nd, Ukrainian artillery hit targets in southern Donetsk as well as in and around Donetsk city. The night time attacks included in Petrovskiy district of Donetsk city, where rebel media claimed residential buildings were damaged. Damage was reported in Trudovskoye. An early morning Ukrainian artillery attack which lasted three hours, struck rebel positions at Sahanka, Kominternovo and Novoazovskiy near the Sea of Azov coastal city of Mariupol.
Rebel media said that on Thursday, artillery attacks were recorded in western areas of Donetsk and in Yasinovataya. Artillery attacks were also noted by rebel media at Dokuchaevsk.
In the website novorosinform.org, artillery fire, and presumably direct fire exchanges was noted in Lugansk in Pervomaisk and Stakhanov. Direct fire combat and mortar fire was reported in the same website at the Donetsk airport, Spartak, Peski and the Oktyabrskiy district of Donetsk. The report said that rebel forces returned mortar fire. Fighting was reported at the industrial area of Avdievka and in Yasinovataya, including the use of heavy artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (BMP-2).
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