ATO General Staff: Ukraine will not withdraw troops from Shyrokine

Due to large number of shellings of Shyrokine village near Mariupol commandment of anti-terrorist operation has abandoned plans of demilitarization of the settlement.

Deputy Head of ATO commandment in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts Sergiy Galushko informed this on Sunday night.

He said that under such circumstances and with such number of cases of shelling one cannot talk of any withdrawal, especially unilateral.

‘Every day we register 40, 50, 60 cases of shelling … from the side of fighters. That is why residents of Mariupol can be sure, ATO commandment is not going to let fighters push themselves around and unilaterally reduce safety level of the town and the region in general’, – Galushko said.

Before that residents of town of Mariupol held a meeting against demilitarization of Shyrokine. This village is of great importance because it can give terrorist fighters direct way to Mariupol itself.

More than 2000 residents of Mariupol came to the town center to support Ukrainian Armed Forces and adopted an appeal to the President, General Staff and Secretary of Security and Defense Council which they called ‘Not one step back’.

The participants of the meeting held Ukrainian flags and most of them had red poppies pinned to their clothes. This sign is considered a symbol of victory in WWII.

People held posters calling for peace, but they all were against the idea of withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from Shyrokine.