The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has announced the closure of several transport corridors in the Donetsk and Lugansk self-proclaimed People's Republics (DPR and LPR). This concerns the corridors near the village of Majorcan and Zaitsev, but in the case of extension of sectors of attacks similar measures were taken in respect of other transport corridors. According to ITAR-TASS, the transport blockade of Donbass began on January 21st 2015. The Ukrainian authorities introduced special admissions, which operate on a limited number of routes in order to limit entry to the territories of the DPR and LPR. In March the State Border Service of Ukraine stopped letting in trucks with food to the DPR and LPR. The full transport blockade began on June 18th. All ways out of the DPR to Kiev-controlled territory were blocked. On June 26th the blockade was relaxed. Private cars were given the opportunity to cross the border, but only in the directions of Kharkov and Mariupol.
"We are concerned about the events of the last days, which remind us of preparations for military actions like in August last year, when the Ukrainian Army was ordered to attack, but when they failed they agreed to negotiate. This was Minsk-1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says. "It seems to us that we don’t need to experiment or tempt fate. You just need to execute the things we agreed to in Minsk. I mean not only military responsibilities, but the beginning of a political process.’'
According to Denis Pushilin, representative of the DPR, the number of attacks by divisions under Kiev’s controlled is about 80 a day, although the number of previous attacks ranged from 10-30 a day. ''The situation could lead to a full resumption of hostilities at any moment. So it really raises serious concerns, and these concerns depend on the number of units deployed on the contact line belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as direct provocative shellings of residential areas. This is also reinforced by reluctance and evasion in making political decisions.’’
In Pushilin’s opinion, Kiev realizes that if they ignore the Minsk Agreement it could become a non-alternative document. And in this case, the situation could lead to war.
As for the contact line with the People's Republic of Lugansk, the situation here is a bit different than in Donetsk. ‘‘This process is directed at human settlements. As for use, the Ukrainian armed forces attack our communication lines, trying to damage our power lines, water supply lines, etc. Often these attacks prevent our attempts at making repair works. When we make a request for repair works, we reconcile it with Ukraine; but when our specialists try to start work, Ukraine begins to attack us again. Sometimes we even have situations where we have to leave our equipment, and then regain it under fire,’’ said Vladislav Dainego, representative of the LPR.
According to him, when people’s volunteer corps started to unilaterally withdraw weapons of one hundred millimeters, the situation changed in this regard. Ukraine began more intensive shellings on the contact line, in particular on human settlements. ‘‘Any attempts to withdraw weapons from the line of contact leads to the situation that Ukraine tries to make us take another decision. Today our position is tough in this respect. We are trying to resist any attempts to return weapons. It negatively affects our position, mainly due to the fact that we have virtually nothing to oppose. We haven’t any serious units, just small arms. Today we cannot oppose, but nevertheless we continue to insist on a bilateral challenge and agreement in respect of the removal of units from both sides, as well as trying not to rise to provocations in any case,’’ Dainego says.
