REUTERS

"Since the beginning of Monday, militants tried 10 times to provoke ATO forces into violating the full ceasefire," the ATO press center wrote on Facebook.

At about 09:00 in the morning on Monday, the enemy based in the occupied city of Donetsk started firing on the Ukrainian positions near the village of Opytne from small arms and grenade launchers, and the attack lasted for half an hour.

"Having opened effective fire from small arms to target the enemy's firing points, Ukrainian soldiers made the militants cease their fire. In the same location, the ATO forces were under sniper fire. All the attempts failed," the ATO press center wrote.

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Another targeted fire on Ukrainian defenders was opened by the enemy from small arms near the town of Maryinka.

What is more, the ATO headquarters reported that illegal armed groups from the self-proclaimed Donbas republics had opened untargeted fire from grenade launchers in the direction of ATO strongholds to the south of the town of Avdiyivka and near the village of Opytne.

The situation remained calm in Luhansk region and in the Mariupol sector during the day, the press center said.

On the first day of January 2016, the ATO press center reported about 42 militant attacks on the Ukrainian forces.