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'Provocation':
Moscow slams Ukraine’s shelling of Russian border checkpoint
Mortar
shells from Ukraine have again hit Russian territory, damaging a
building at a border checkpoint and creating holes in the ground in
two villages. The Russian Foreign Ministry has protested the
“provocation,” demanding that Kiev investigate it.
At
least three shells were launched over the Russian-Ukrainian border
into Russia on Saturday, with one blasting a border-crossing
checkpoint in the Rostov Region.
“Today,
on June 28, Gukovo checkpoint came under fire. One of the shells hit
a building and exploded,” a
spokesman for the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) Border Guard
administration in Rostov Region, Vasily Malaev, told RT.
The
building was severely damaged, but, luckily, nobody was injured in
the blast, Malaev said. Some 30 Ukrainian refugees were completing
their documents at the checkpoint at the time of the attack and were
evacuated together with border guards after the shelling started.
The
Russian Foreign Ministry responded with a statement calling the
incident a dangerous “provocation”and
demanding that Kiev investigate it.
“The
Russian side strongly protests such provocations of the Ukrainian
side, which fragrantly violate the underlying principles of
international law,” the ministry said in a statement, demanding
that “a thorough investigation into what has happened” be carried
out and the perpetrators be punished.
Reminding
that both Russian citizens and Ukrainian refugees crossing the border
could have come under harm, Moscow said the incident is “yet
another link in the chain” of
Ukrainian ceasefire breaches which undermine Kiev’s dialogue with
eastern Ukraine and a peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Later
on Saturday, Gukovo checkpoint resumed its work despite the damage.
Two
more shells exploded in the villages of Vasetsky Khutor and
Shakhta-24, with clearly visible shell holes reported from the scene.
Footage from Gukovo village also showed locals inspecting a large
hole in an iron gate in a residential area, supposedly created by a
shell or its splinter.
A
border guard official told RIA Novosti he believes Ukrainian troops
were behind the shelling.
The
shelling coincided with reports of apparent fighting over the border
in Ukraine, with gunfire and explosions clearly heard in the town of
Krasnopartizansk (Ukrainian: Chervonopartyzansk).
The
chairman of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic’s (LNR)
parliament, Aleksey Karyakin, told journalists that Krasnopartizansk
morning was attacked by the Ukrainian forces on Saturday in an
apparent breach of the prolonged ceasefire.
“Despite
the agreement [on a ceasefire] that we reached at a meeting
yesterday, this morning Ukrainian forces shelled Krasnopartizansk
town,” Karyakin
was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
The Ukrainian troops
entered the town but were pushed back from the area by the
self-defense, Karyakin said, adding that the area is
currently “encircled” by
pro-Kiev forces.
According
to the LNR official, Ukrainian troops have been acting as if they
were “living
their own life, apparently oblivious of the Ukrainian president’s
[Petro Poroshenko’s] order.”
On
Friday Poroshenko decided to prolong the ceasefire until June
30.
While Poroshenko voiced hopes that
his ceasefire would work and there will be no need for “Plan
B” and
the use of force, Kiev has been amassing its troops in eastern
Ukraine over the last week, according to anti-Kiev
authorities.
Clashes have been routine during the week,
and separate reports of Ukrainian troops allegedly firing at vehicles
continued to emerge.
According to Karyakin, there
are “cases
of sniper fire at civilian vehicles” driving
in the direction of the Izvarino checkpoint on the border with
Russia.
The contested Ukrainian border checkpoints, some
of which are controlled by the self-defense forces, have been one of
the subjects of talks between Kiev and eastern Ukrainian
representatives. Self-defense has refused to surrender the
checkpoints, but an agreement on OSCE representatives monitoring the
passing of refugees and the delivery of humanitarian aid has been
reached. No OSCE observers have so far arrived to the checkpoints,
according to Karyakin.
Meanwhile, on Saturday Kiev refused
to accept the 60 tons of humanitarian aid for southeastern Ukrainians
collected in Russia, with Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry citing the
alleged “uncertainty
of its final destination.”.
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