2 dead, 9 wounded in new ‘ceasefire violation’ in eastern Ukraine - reports
Two people have been killed and nine wounded in fresh shelling near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, rebels said on Friday. They blame Kiev government forces for yet another violation of the Minsk ceasefire.
“In the course of this ceasefire violation by Ukrainian forces, there were 11 casualties - with two dead in the Kuybyshevsky district,” a spokesman for the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), Eduard Basurin told the Donetsk news agency, adding that seven people were wounded in the Gorlovka battleground.
The spokesman also mentioned there were 36 such provocations from Kiev in just the space of one day, which included substantial shelling. DNR forces have spotted the Ukrainian army frequently redeploying heavy weapons in areas under their control, which is another violation of the Minsk agreements, Basurin pointed out.
READ MORE: Residential districts ‘intensively’ shelled near Donetsk airport
‘Grad’ multiple-launch rocket systems have been spotted in the town of Stepnoe, while 2S19 "Msta-S" tanks have been popping up in and around Semigorye, Luganskoe and Maryinovsky, according to the rebel official.
RT was at the site of heavy shelling in Gorlovka, where apartments were on the receiving end of direct hits from Ukrainian shells, with windows and small terraces blown off the buildings on Thursday. Three people lost their lives in one attack, local residents reported.
“Shrapnel scatters to all sides, you are deafened, blinded…” a middle-aged resident said. “155 mm cannon shell fragments are very big.”
Another resident told RT how one boy they knew well had “turned seven yesterday – and today he is in hospital in a coma… and his mother is dead.”
The man led the channel’s crew into what used to be his apartment, with a gaping hole in practically every room.
“When the fire started, we ran to the basement. If we had been sleeping, we would have been dead.”
The Gorlovka hospital, where the wounded children are brought in, still has fresh blood on the ground just below the main entrance. Doctors say they are receiving new victims every day.
As civilians clean up the mess around their homes in Donetsk, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, spoke in Kiev about Washington's support for the Minsk agreement. In that speech, it is Kiev that emerges as the victim of provocations by the DNR.
"There's a political solution, diplomatic pressure to try to ensure better implementation in the near term and full implementation ultimately and that is the necessary course even if, right now, it's a halting one."
Power went on to praise Western sanctions against Russia and was happy to report that the country would feel the isolation happening overtime, while adding that they'd had a strong effect on the Russian economy.
