Militants are massing troops and weapons in Donetsk to attack Maryinka / Photo from twitter.com/UKRinVAT

The situation remains tense near Maryinka, whose territory, according to Ukrainian intelligence reports, the enemy plans to make an incursion into in the next 24 hours. "During the day, the enemy opened direct fire on Ukrainian troops deployed near that town six times. The occupiers used grenade launchers and infantry combat vehicles," the ATO HQ said. What is more, the checkpoint in Maryinka was under enemy sniper fire.

Local residents from the militant-held city of Donetsk report that the combined Russian-separatist troops have been massing forces and military hardware in the city's Petrovsky district to attack on Maryinka.

"Since the beginning of the day, Russian-backed illegal armed formations have opened fire on ATO forces 20 times in total," the ATO HQ said.

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"During the day the enemy used grenade launchers of different systems to shell our strongholds near the villages of Novhorodske, Bohdanivka, and Pisky (close to the ruined Donetsk airport)," it said.

"The Ukrainian positions in the villages of Opytne, Luhanske and Zaitseve came under fire from large-caliber machine guns and small arms. The situation was tense near the villages of Chermalyk and Starohnativka in the Mariupol sector where terrorists had been shelling our troops with the use of grenade launchers and infantry combat vehicles, respectively," the press center said.