Attacks in Ukraine surge to levels seen at battles of Debaltseve, Ilovaisk

According to a report by UK newspaper the Independent on Sunday, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council believes there are 33,400 Russian-backed separatist soldiers inside eastern Ukraine, with 400 main battle tanks and close to 2,000 armored troop carriers at “full combat readiness.” The council also said that there are more than 50,000 Russian troops on the border, and more than 9,000 already inside Ukraine.

And the upsurge in fighting in eastern Ukraine prompted German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to describe the situation there as “explosive” in an interview published on Aug. 16 by German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, news agency Reuters reported.

"There is a lot at stake. If both parties in the conflict don't return to the peace process, a new military escalation spiral could be triggered at any time," Steinmeier said.
[link to www.kyivpost.com]

As a result of militants' mortar attack on pumping station near the village Loskutivka (Popasna district of Luhansk region) water supply pump providing water for occupied territory was damaged.

This was reported today, 17 August, by the press service of the Luhansk regional military-civilian administration.

The militants cut off of fresh water most of the cities in the territory controlled by the so-called “LNR”: Pervomaisk, Krasnyi Luch, Stakhanov, Antratsyt, Alchevsk, Brianka and others.

“The weather has been quite hot in Luhansk region for las three days. By killing fresh water supply militants condemned the occupied territory to the epidemic. The repair crew have already started working at the site. We do not need an epidemic neither in “LNR”-controlled territory nor in the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government,”- said the head of the Luhansk regional military-civilian administration Heorhiy Tuka.
[link to ukraineunderattack.org]