"Russian proxies in occupied eastern Ukraine shelled Ukrainian-government positions over the weekend and on Monday.
The artillery barrage killed two civilians and wounded several others in Sartana, near the Sea of Azov.
It’s one of the larger-scale escalations of the conflict since a winter cease-fire.
Moscow and Kiev agreed under the Minsk II accord negotiated in February to cease hostilities, create a buffer zone and withdraw heavy weapons.
Yet “to a big extent [the Russian side] continually violates the agreement,” Gen. Viktor Muzhenko, the chief of staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, told us in a rare interview before the latest escalation.
“Some days we can have 80 to 100 violations.”
Russian violations range from small-arms fire to covert infiltration to the heavy shelling on the weekend.
The Kremlin’s aim is to gradually break the will of the Ukrainian people.
“This war looks like a war of attrition,” Gen. Muzhenko says.
“It’s Russia’s intent to demoralize our forces, and using that mechanism they want to influence Ukraine’s military leadership as well as the state leadership.”
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