Deadly air strikes in Lugansk are among Kiev’s “crimes against their own people,” the Russian Foreign Ministry has said. The intense air attack coincided with a top US defense official’s visit to Kiev, the ministry noted.
The statement was issued in response to the deadly bombing of the Lugansk administrative HQ, in which 8
civilians were killed Monday. The OSCE on Tuesday confirmed that the incident was an airstrike,
despite Kiev’s reluctance to admit it.
The bombing has been blasted by the Foreign Ministry as “yet
another crime against their own people” by the Kiev
authorities. The attack also came as a grave violation of the
April 17 Geneva treaty on Ukraine and the OSCE roadmap, proving
that Kiev “is openly unwilling to go along the way of looking
for interethnic harmony in the country.”
The ministry’s statement particularly noted that “the
escalation of actions of the Ukrainian forces and
ultranationalists coincided with the Kiev visit of the US
Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek Chollet.”
Chollet met Monday with Ukrainian security and defense officials
and announced that the US has doubled its military aid to Kiev,
bringing it to a hefty $18 million in “nonlethal
supplies.” The US official promised even more assistance to
the Ukrainian military and border guards, saying that Kiev
authorities provided him with a “long list” of needs.
Later Tuesday, Kiev admitted an intense air attack in the Lugansk
area, saying that its Air Force helicopters and jets “fired
more than 150 missiles” supporting the Ukrainian border
guards clashing with militia.
Earlier in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that America was “running the show in Ukraine” and referenced the visits to Kiev of CIA head John Brennan and Vice-President Joe Biden.
Meanwhile, in neighboring Poland, US President Barack Obama
pledged to invest $1 billion in stepping up the US military presence
in Eastern Europe, to “reaffirm” Washington’s commitment
to NATO allies.
“Given the situation in Ukraine right now, we have also
increased our American presence. We've begun rotating additional
ground troops and F-16 aircraft into Poland... to help our forces
support NATO air missions,” Obama said, speaking in front of
several F-16 fighter jets in a Warsaw airport.