After Weeklong Bombardment, Devastated Ukrainian City Awakens To 'Relative Calm'
AVDIYIVKA, Ukraine -- Residents of this front-line flashpoint city awoke to relative calm on February 4 after a week of heavy artillery bombardments that chewed up lives and bodies and caused President Petro Poroshenko to declare a state of emergency.
The lull came before a phone call that was scheduled to take place between Poroshenko and U.S. President Donald Trump around 11:45 p.m. Kyiv time. Ukraine has looked for support from Trump, who has said he wants to improve relations with Russia.
Pavlo Malykhin, the city’s head of civilian and military affairs, told RFE/RL he believed the welcomed lull was due to a local cease-fire brokered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s special monitoring mission to Ukraine and the Joint Center for Control and Coordination, which includes Ukrainian and Russian military officers.
Continued: http://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-avdiyivka-fighting-relative-calm-poroshenko-trump/28279060.html
Looks like this skirmish was largely politically motivated per the sanctions; to me.
North Korea makes noise every so often; this seems similar.
