Russia-Ukraine conflict: Kyiv's military reports 2 soldiers killed, 12 wounded in shelling

Ukrainian military on Tuesday, February 22, in the latest accusations of ceasefire violations by Russia-backed rebels, said that two of its soldiers have been killed and 12 others wounded in intense shelling by separatists in east Ukraine. The incidence of violence, said the Ukrainian military, occurred in the past 24 hours. In an update on its Facebook page, Ukraine’s military claimed that it has recorded an estimated 84 cases of shelling by pro-Russia rebels, who, it also said, opened fire on about 40 civilian settlements at the Line of Contact using heavy artillery and mortar shelling. 

The Russian Defence Ministry meanwhile accused Ukraine’s Army of launching assaults on the highly volatile border. A projectile fired from Ukraine has destroyed a building used by Russia’s border force near the frontier with separatist-held eastern Ukraine, it said in a telegram post as militaries on both sides exchanged a series of claims in midst of escalating incidents of violence.

“At 9:50 a.m., an unidentified projectile fired from Ukraine completely destroyed a border facility used by the FSB border guard service in the Rostov region, around 150 meters from the Russian-Ukrainian border,” Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) had said in a statement, accusing the Ukrainian forces.

The footage that it posted depicted fire in a cabin in the village of Scherbakovo which Russian troops described as a facility of border patrols, and Ukrainian troops refuted calling it ‘fake news.’ 

Russia defence ministry-Ukraine Army's clash over who ignited violence on border

As an all-out war-like scenario unfolded in the Donbas region, before the Russian President formally recognised the breakaway provinces, the Russian Army stated that it shot down five Ukrainian "saboteurs" accusing them of crossing into the Russian territory. "A detachment of the Border Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Rostov Region, together with units covering the border of the Southern Military District, discovered an unknown group on two infantry fighting vehicles that violated the border from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. The group was stopped and destroyed during armed resistance," the update by Russia’s Southern Military District on Facebook read. Ukraine immediately denied the Russian military’s claims, saying that it did not send any saboteurs or armoured personnel carriers across the Russian border. 

Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine also accused Ukrainian saboteurs of detonating a mine on a road in the breakaway region that killed three civilians, Interfax reported. Ukrainian forces accused Russian backed rebels of provoking the violence. Kyiv’s Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, asked Russian federation to “stop the fake factory immediately.”