Donetsk militias claim that 300 Ukrainian troops voluntarily surrendered during an operation in Debaltsevo.
"The real figure is currently 300 prisoners. This process is permanent, since the purging of the city continues, and those Ukrainian troops that we are finding now continue to surrender," a Donetsk militia representative told Interfax.
Russia's Rossiya 24 television channel reported earlier that 125 Ukrainian troops had surrendered.
"All in all, 17 breaches of the ceasefire on the part of the Ukrainian army have been reported in the past 24 hours. The localities of Fashchevka, Vuhlehirsk, Horlivka, Kyrovke, the outskirts of Donetsk and the Donetsk airport came under fire. Five militiamen have been injured in the past 24 hours. No reports of civilian injuries have been received," the self-proclaimed republic's Defense Ministry was quoted as saying by the Donetsk news agency.
"Over the night into February 17 there was an insignificant decrease in the number of attacks against Ukrainian army positions in the anti-terrorist operation zone. Concurrently, terrorists have focused on the Debaltsevo area," Anatoliy Stelmakh said at a briefing on Tuesday.
