Ukraine Announces Death of Two Soldiers in Donbas Shelling

Ukrainian authorities announced the death of two of their soldiers and the injury of four others as a result of shelling that targeted a village on the frontline in eastern Ukraine, where tensions are escalating with local forces. The Ukrainian police clarified that two soldiers were killed and three others were injured due to shelling in the village of Zaitsevo, located 30 kilometers north of Donetsk, while a fourth soldier was injured in the town of Vodyanoye. Since last Thursday, the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which has been experiencing a political military crisis since 2014, has seen a sharp escalation, with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics reporting the heaviest shelling activities in recent months, accusing the authorities in Kyiv of flagrant violations of the ceasefire agreement. On Friday, both the head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, and the head of Luhansk, Leonid Pasechnik, announced the beginning of evacuation operations for residents of the republics to Russian territory in order to avoid civilian casualties amid escalating hostilities and warnings of a large-scale attack by Kyiv authorities to militarily control the region.