Civilian Killed in Intense Ukrainian Army Shelling of Donetsk
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - At least one civilian has been killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk after an army shell hit an apartment building amid intense fire on rebel positions. An RT correspondent said the city has seen one of its worst shelling in months.
“There was fire, shelling for about two hours and it was almost non-stop…blast after blast, you could feel the vibrations from the explosions, kilometers away from the frontline,” RT’s Murad Gazdiev said over the phone from Donetsk.
According to Gazdiev, the attack centered on northern Donetsk, where the previously contested airport is located, but at least one shell landed on a civilian building. RT’s crew rushed to the area to find out if the report was true.
“We found the residents who survived sitting outside, obviously in shock, covered in dust. One elderly man who lived on the top floor…the shell landed in his apartment. The place was almost torn apart, the walls were blasted out,” Gazdiev said, describing the scene.
Rescue workers were still trying to find the man’s remains in the rubble, he added.
The rise in violence in eastern Ukraine comes just days after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed to “fight to the last drop of blood” against what he called “Russian aggressors” and called the internationally-recognized Minsk peace roadmap a “pseudo-peace” deal in an interview with the German TV channel ZDF. Earlier, Poroshenko’s official website quoted him as saying: “I have no doubt – we will free the [Donetsk] airport, because it is our land. And we will rebuild the airport.”
The Donetsk Airport had been the last strategic spot occupied by Ukrainian troops in the rebel-held city before anti-government forces overran the area after eight months of siege.
Poroshenko’s statement prompted reaction from both Moscow and Washington. While the Kremlin said it “clearly violated the Minsk agreements,” US Secretary of State John Kerry advised Poroshenko to “think twice” before reigniting the conflict.
The Ukrainian president later backpedaled on his remarks about the airport, accusing the Russian press of overblowing the quote, RT reported.
The latest attack comes despite US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who is currently in Moscow on a Ukraine-centered visit, saying that “there is no indication from our own information or from my consultations in Kiev that anybody on the Ukrainian side, anybody in leadership…has any intention of launching new hostilities.”
