The Ukrainian army attempted to take over Donetsk suburb with tanks a day after two children were killed in the shelling of a local school, rebels allege. This comes as Dutch inspectors, probing the Flight MH17 crash, arrived in the area.
The self-defense forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)
said that have repelled a tank attack on the outskirts of
Donetsk, with Kiev forces losing at least five armored vehicles
during the battle in the town of Yasinovataya.
“The tanks opened sporadic fire at our positions and
residential areas,” the staff of the DPR militias told
RIA-Novosti news agency.
According to the self-defense forces, at least two civilians were
killed and seven others wounded in the fighting. The attack has
been repelled, with the militias now trying to figure out “if
it was an offensive reconnaissance and should we wait for a
continuation of the operation.”
Meanwhile, Kiev has denied allegations that they had launched a
new offensive in the suburb of Donetsk.
"We refute these allegations... We're strictly fulfilling the
Minsk [ceasefire] memorandum. We remain within the previously
defined boundaries, in our positions. We're not advancing,"
spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov told Reuters by telephone.
DPR’s Interior Ministry said that Kiev’s forces were continuing
the shelling of residential areas in Donetsk on Thursday.
“Three homes were hit, according to our records. We also have
information on two civilians being wounded. It's all happening in
the Kievsky district of Donetsk, in the territory adjacent to the
Donetsk airport,” a ministry representative told Interfax
news agency.
Several shells hit the Donetsk Railway Transport Institute, with
an RT stringer on the scene reporting of four injured civilians.
A large blast was also heard near another school, this time
inside Donetsk, again not far from the airport. The projectile
exploded in an apartment block next door to School No. 59,
cleared by residents beforehand, which avoided casualties.
The incident comes less than 24 hours after two schoolchildren
were killed and four injured by an artillery shell that hit a
stadium in front of a school near Donetsk.
The children’s rights ombudsman of Ukraine, Valeria Lutkovskaya,
on Wednesday appealed to the leaders of Kiev’s so-called
“anti-terrorist operation” in the southeast of the country,
urging them to “perform an immediate and impartial
investigation into the deaths and injuries of children.”
READ MORE:2
teens killed, 4 injured in shelling nr Donetsk school, E.
Ukraine
The reports of fighting in the area go on, despite Kiev and the
militias of Donetsk and Lugansk agreeing a ceasefire during talks
in Minsk, Belarus, on September 5.
Ukraine has been engulfed in internal conflict since April, when
Kiev’s forces began their crackdown on southeastern regions after
they refused to recognize the country’s new coup-imposed
authorities.
READ MORE:Dutch PM: Investigators access MH17 crash site, collect more remains
The United Nations estimates that the death toll in the Ukrainian
conflict has exceeded 4,000 people, with over 9,300 wounded.On
Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that Kiev has “grossly
defied” the agreements which were reached by Ukraine, Russia, the
US and EU during the Geneva talks on April 17.
“Instead of de-escalation, Kiev intensified military action
in the southeast of the country, using heavy equipment, which led
to thousands of casualties and widespread destruction. Instead of
a real constitutional reform and dialogue with its own people
some vague backroom maneuvers were performed that have not yet
resulted in nothing, but empty promises,” the ministry said
in a statement.
In these conditions, Moscow doubts the viability of calls by
Ukrainian PM Arseny Yatsenyuk and other politicians to return to
the Geneva format of peace talks, the statement said.
“Wouldn’t it be better for the Ukrainian side to first try to do what has already been agreed and what it promised to do?” the ministry said.
Inspectors prepare MH17 debris for transfer to Netherlands
The Dutch inspectors investigating the Malaysia Airlines MH17
tragedy, have arrived at the Boeing crash site near the village
of Grabovo. They were accompanied by OSCE observers and
representatives of the DPR’s Emergencies Ministry.
The inspectors examined the wreckage of the plane, putting items
they discovered at the crash site into black plastic bags. They
also placed special warning signs around the sites with the
largest concentrations of debris.
The inspectors and rescue workers declined to make any comments
to the press, but a source in the DPR’s Emergencies Ministry told
Tass news agency that the transportation of the debris of the
plane to the Netherlands could begin as early as Friday.
All 298 people aboard the Malaysia Airlines jet died as it crashed in Ukraine's Donetsk region on July 17. The majority of those on board the downed plane were Dutch citizens. Both sides involved in the Ukraine conflict have accused each other of bringing down the aircraft.