"Starting from 21:00 Kyiv time on July 3, the militants had been shelling the ATO forces near the village of Novotoshkivske with the use of 120mm-caliber shells for two hours. At 22:00, the same weapons were used to attack the village of Novhorodske (Donetsk region) for an hour," the report said.
Russian-backed forces also attempted to provoke Ukrainian military into return fire by launching attacks on the villages of Stanytsia Luhanska, Maryinka, Krasnohorivka, Mayorsk, Rozsadky, and Troyitske.
"The tensest situation was near the village of Opytne. Our soldiers there were constantly under attack from various types of weapons and sniper fire. Starting from 20:40 Kyiv time, Russian-backed invaders had been firing from an infantry combat vehicle on the position of the ATO forces near the village of Pisky (close to the destroyed Donetsk airport). Enemy fire was quickly suppressed with the fire of weapons not banned under by the Minsk agreements," the report said.
A skirmish between ATO troops and a sabotage and reconnaissance group of the Russian-backed militants happened near the village of Schastia at 17:10 Kyiv time on July 3. The Ukrainian military forced the enemy to retreat.
From midnight to 06:00 Kyiv time on July 4, enemy armed gangs continued violating the Minsk agreements.
"The positions of the ATO forces near the village of Krymske were twice attacked with the use of 120mm-caliber mortars. The invaders fired three times on the positions of the ATO forces near Novotoshkivske, in particular, from a tank, 120mm mortars, 122mm guns and small arms," the ATO press center said.
Presidential administration spokesman for ATO issues Colonel Andriy Lysenko said in his daily update in Kyiv on July 4 that one Ukrainian soldier was killed and two were wounded in the Donbas conflict zone in the last day.
