DPR: Ukraine’s armed forces use ammo banned by international conventions

Ukraine’s military use ammunition banned by international conventions, Alexander Borodai, the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine, told reporters on Thursday.
“Explosive bullets are fired and all the banned ammunition are used by the other side,” Borodai said, adding that “mercenaries are fighting for the Ukrainian armed forces and they employ all possible dirty methods.”
DPR units are planning to recapture Donetsk’s Prokofiev international airport that is currently controlled by Ukraine’s military, Borodai said.

“At a definite moment, there will be a counter-attack if they don’t leave the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” he said.
Leaders of the republic have the information that aircraft carrying new units of the Ukrainian army, the National Guard and militants of the ultranationalist Right Sector movement land at the airport almost every day.
“The enemy is concentrating large forces and although we know how many of them are in the area, I wouldn’t like to disclose the figures at the news conference,” he said.

Commanders of both sides remain on friendly terms. “They used to serve in the army, were at school together, some are still friends and quite naturally they do not want to shoot at each other,” Borodai said. “The talks are under way.”
At least 60 self-defence fighters and also 20 civilians were killed as a result of combat operations. There are snipers in the airport area, he said.
“Civilians are dying every day and no-one can provide the exact death toll figures as the access to the airport is strictly forbidden at the moment,” Borodai said. “We are unable to carry all the bodies out of there and to say exactly how many people were killed.”

Meanwhile, Borodai refuted the reports that the curfew had been imposed in the newly formed republic.
“We’ve imposed martial law but not curfew,” he said pointing to lack of necessity for imposing curfew.
Earlier, Itar-Tass learnt at the Russian Armed Forces General Staff that about 300 Ukrainian mercenaries fighting for opposition against President Bashar Assad in Syria take part in the punitive operation of the Ukrainian military in Ukraine's southeast. The source said they joined Right Sector battalions.