Ukrainian Defense Ministry: Militants violate ceasefire over 6,000 times this year

Illegal armed groups present in eastern Ukraine have violated the ceasefire more than 6,000 times this year and shelled positions held by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

This was announced by Major General Bohdan Bondar, the Chief of the General Command Center - the Deputy Chief of the Joint Operational Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, at a briefing on Tuesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Throughout 2016, the illegal armed groups of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Regions have violated the ceasefire 6,179 times," Bondar said.

He also added that illegal armed groups had used banned weapons more than a thousand times.

"They used weapons, which should be removed at a certain distance in accordance with the Minsk agreements, on 1,377 occasions," Bondar added.

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