Pro-Russian rebels ride on a truck in the town of Krasnodon, eastern Ukraine, Aug. 17, 2014.
Ukraine claimed Monday that rebels in the east of the country fired rockets and mortars on a refugee convoy of buses trying to flee the region＇s intense fighting near the separatist-held city of Luhansk. The rebels denied responsibility.
Kyiv＇s military said "many people died, including women and children," trapped in the burning vehicles, when insurgents shot at residents with "Grad rocket launchers and mortar guns given by Russia."
“A powerful artillery strike hit a refugee convoy near the area of Khryashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka. The force of the blow on the convoy was so strong that people were burned alive in the vehicles - they weren＇t able to get themselves out,” military spokesman Anatoly Proshin told Ukrainian news channel 112.ua.
The allegations came after a five-hour meeting between the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany broke up without agreement on how to end more than four months of conflict that has killed over 2,100 people and left the region facing a humanitarian catastrophe.
Rebels blame Ukraine
A senior rebel leader denied his forces had the military capability to conduct such an attack, and accused the government of regularly attacking the area including with Russian-made Grad missiles.
“The Ukrainians themselves have bombed the road constantly with airplanes and Grads. It seems they＇ve now killed more civilians like they＇ve been doing for months now. We don＇t have the ability to send Grads into that territory,” said Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People＇s Republic.
The barrage took place between the towns of Svitlivka and Khrashchuvate, which lie on the main road leading from Luhansk to Russia. There were no immediate further details.
That road is likely the one that a convoy of Russian humanitarian aid would take if Ukraine allows it into the country.
Reports of fresh successes by the Kyiv military followed a breakthrough for government forces at the weekend when troops raised the national flag in Luhansk, a city held by the pro-Russian separatists since the onset of the conflict in April.
However, nine Ukrainian troops were killed in the overnight fighting, a military spokesman said.
Despite Western sanctions, the crisis has defied attempts at an international settlement and turned into the worst rift between Russia and the west since the end of the Cold War.
Russian aid convoy
Meanwhile, a massive aid convoy sent from Moscow was still waiting to be checked near Ukraine＇s restive border as talks dragged on about allowing them to cross into rebel-held territory.
On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “all questions” relating to Russia sending the humanitarian convoy to Ukraine had been addressed.
However, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is to take responsibility for the aid convoy when it enters Ukraine, has demanded security guarantees from all sides, including the rebels, for the mission.
"We are still waiting for security guarantees for the convoy," said Galina Balzamova, spokeswoman for the ICRC.
As of midday, there was no indication that the guarantees had been given.
The convoy has been parked for days in Russia near the border amid objections from Kyiv, which believes the convoy could be a Trojan Horse for Russia to get weapons to the rebels - a notion that Moscow has dismissed as absurd. |
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