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Ukraine
army assaults Lugansk: Airstrikes on suburbs, shelling of residential
areas
Kiev's
artillery attacked the city of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday,
witnesses and militia of the self-proclaimed People's Republic of
Lugansk (LNR) said. Ukrainian forces also attacked the city’s
suburbs from the air.
RT,
6 July, 2014, 2014
"Ukrainian
aviation launched missile strikes at Aleksandrovka, the Lugansk
suburb. Ukrainian airplanes are in the skies above Lugansk. A siren
is on," the press service
of the Donetsk People's Republic wrote on Twitter.
After
8 p.m. Moscow time, the confrontation between the self-defense and
Ukrainian forces intensified in the suburbs of Lugansk, RIA Novosti
reported.
The
agency said that a heavy aircraft could be heard flying above
Lugansk, after which a siren went off.
In
general, in the evening hours the situation within the city was calm.
Earlier in the day Lugansk mayor addressed its citizens and asked
them not to leave their homes.
One
civilian was reportedly killed in the morning attacks, four more
people injured.
Later
in the day, following the air strikes, an air raid alert was heard in
Lugansk, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The
attack happened the same day Kiev said it would not bombard armed
groups in Lugansk and Donetsk from the air. "The
tactics of the Ukrainian Army, the National Guard and the Border
Service are such that massive bombardment of residential areas is
excluded," Andrey Lysenko,
spokesman of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said
on Sunday
Air
strikes and heavy artillery will target only convoys outside cities,
he added.
"Several
buildings are burning in the city, some people have been injured,
there are a lot of ambulances in the streets,”
militia representatives told Itar-Tass on Sunday, adding that locals
rushed to bomb shelters. Witnesses say the battery factory was hit,
which is close to a bus terminal.
Grad
rocket launchers may have been used in the attack, the sources from
the Lugansk People’s Republic said..
ФОТО Последствия бомбежки Луганска несколько минут назадpic.twitter.com/MEVFNrukIa
— Коробков-Землянский (@korobkov) July 6, 2014
Ukrainian
forces confirmed the shelling of the areas near the Lugansk railway
and bus stations on Sunday afternoon, but blamed it on the opposing
self-defense forces.
"I
presume the fire was really intense as it reached the city center
from the outskirts. I heard at least five or six explosions,"
Anton Bukhalo, a journalist from Lugansk, told RT. He added that
people were trying to leave the city.
A
RIA-Novosti journalist also reported the sound of artillery and
gunfire in Lugansk on Sunday.
Ukrainian
forces hit a building in the city center and "huge black smoke"
was seen in the area, an eyewitness from Lugansk told RT via Skype.
He added that a warehouse was burning.
"I
can often hear explosions or shooting. I can hear it every five to
ten minutes," said the man,
who is currently in the eastern part of Lugansk.
Donetsk
militia confirm leaving stronghold cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk
Several
explosions were reportedly heard in the Lugansk airport area, and the
movement of military equipment was observed in the town of Schastie,
near Lugansk.
The
previous night mortar shelling took place near the Lugansk airport,
but there are no further reports of casualties so far.
On
Saturday, the health minister of the Lugansk People’s Republic said
at least 80 people had been treated in Lugansk hospitals after a day
of bombing and gunfire from Ukrainian forces. He said 56 of the
injured were civilians.
On
Sunday in Lugansk city center, people were collecting signatures for
an appeal to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Locals want to ask
the UN to stop Kiev's aggression towards civilians, they said.
The
Ukrainian army will besiege the cities of Lugansk and Donetsk in the
country's east, in an attempt to make the self-defense forces lay
down arms, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council official
told Ukrainian Inter TV channel on Sunday.
"The
main strategic plan of the Ukrainian army is to besiege Lugansk and
Donetsk," Mikhail Koval,
deputy secretary of the Council said. Such measures will force the
local "separatists" to lay down arms, he added
Kiev's bloody eastern Ukraine campaign LIVE UPDATES
Fighting is continuing between Kiev and anti-government troops in southeastern Ukraine as the cease-fire expired on Monday evening. Russia and the EU have called to prolong the truce and start the third round of negotiations.
Monday,
July 7
01:00
GMT:
Police
are investigating a shooting in Kiev's Maidan square among pro-Kiev
activists that have resulted in three deaths, Unian reports.
"Today,
at about midnight a conflict between persons calling themselves
Maidan self-defense activists escalated into a gunfight on the
square,” the agency cites a police source. One other person has
received wounds to his stomach and is now in a hospital.
Retweeted by Robin Westenra
В Киеве сейчас на #майдан - нападение неизвестных, перестрелка. Трое погибших. Кого-то ловят какие-то люди. Толком ничего не понятно
Sunday,
July 6
21:05
GMT:
Tripartite
contact group of senior representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the
OSCE expressed the need to urgently take concrete measures for the
peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian domestic crisis, and to hold the
next round of consultations as soon as possible.
“On
the basis of President Poroshenko’s Peace Plan and of the Joint
Declaration of four Foreign Ministers adopted in Berlin on July 2,
2014, the Contact Group underlined that it was a matter of urgency to
make concrete progress towards a peaceful settlement of the crisis,”
the OSCE said in a statementfollowing the meeting in Kiev.
20:43
GMT:
Around
2,000 protesters gathered in the center of Donetsk, the citadel of
the anti-Kiev struggle in the east of Ukraine, to hold a rally
against the Kiev authorities.
20:36 GMT:
Interior
Minister Arsen Avakov has announced that under President Poroshenko's
orders“humanitarian
corridors” have
been opened in eastern Ukraine amid the ongoing offensive against
self-defense militia and airstrikes near
Lugansk.
“It
is a priority that civilians of Slavyansk and Kramatorks speedily
receive what is needed for every Ukrainian citizen: care of oneself,
in this situation, that water and electricity returns to Slavyansk,
for the television to start working,” Avakov
said, Itar-Tass reports. Earlier, after militia left Slavyansk and
Kramatorsk on Saturday, Poroshenko ordered that all civilian
infrastructure destroyed by months of government shelling should be
rebuilt “within
a day.”
19:49
GMT:
Kiev
authorities are arresting all men aged between 25 and 35 years old in
the city of Slavyansk, Oleg Tsarev of the Lugansk and Donetsk
People's Republics told Rossiya 24 TV. The state security forces are
detaining all men in the age gap, without investigating whether they
have joined the self-defense forces or not.
"Over
night they arrested all police officers and moved them out of town.
Now they are arresting all guys from 25 to 35 years old, and it
doesn't matter whether they've touched weapons or not. Searches are
being conducted. They’re trying to figure out who helped feeding
the injured,"
Tsarev said.
19:31
GMT:
The
Ukrainian army occupied several cities and towns in the country's
east over the weekend, according to a report from the Ukrainian
National Security and Defense Council. Slavyansk, Kramatorsk,
Druzhkovka and Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region were said to have
been taken over by Kiev. Ukraine state flags were raised above the
city council buildings there, Council spokesman Andrey Lysenko said
on Sunday.
The
fifth town - Artyomovsk - was added to the list in a Defense Ministry
report to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko.
Poroshenko
has ordered the Defense Minister Valery Geletey to start recovery
works on the infrastructure in the towns and provide the delivery of
food and water to the locals, the presidential press-service
reported.
18:59
GMT:
The
Ukrainian army will besiege the cities of Lugansk and Donetsk in the
country's east, in an attempt to make the self-defense forces lay
down arms, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council official
told Ukrainian Inter TV channel on Sunday.
"The
main strategic plan of the Ukrainian army is to besiege Lugansk and
Donetsk,"
Mikhail Koval, deputy secretary of the Council said. Such measures
will force the local "separatists"
to lay down arms, he added.
18:14
GMT:
"Ukrainian
aviation launched missile strikes at Aleksandrovka, the Lugansk
suburb. Ukrainian airplanes are in the skies above Lugansk. A siren
is on,"
press service of the Donetsk People's Republic wrote on Twitter.
The
attack was launched the same day Kiev said it would not bombard armed
groups in Lugansk and Donetsk from the air. "The
tactics of the Ukrainian Army, the National Guard and the Border
Service are such that massive bombardment of residential areas is
excluded,"
Andrey Lysenko, spokesman of the Ukrainian National Security and
Defense Council said on Sunday.
17:22
GMT:
Two
refugees - a woman and a girl - were injured while fleeing their
hometown of Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine.
A
convoy of the self-defense forces was moving away from the towns of
Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, with some refugee families joining the
military convoy.
"Some
drivers forgot the black-out order and had their headlights on. We
were located by the enemy, who fired at us with Grad rocket
launchers, hitting the convoy’s tail,"
a Donetsk People's Republic representative told RIA Novosti.
16:46
GMT:
Some
30 refugees - mostly women and children - arrived in the city of
Donetsk on Sunday. People had to flee their hometown of Kramatorsk,
where they "had
to walk several kilometers under gunfire to get water to give to the
children,"
one woman said.
Refugees are now awaiting temporary accommodation. Living a normal everyday life was impossible while hiding in Kramatorsk bomb shelters, a woman said: "We couldn't even go home to take a shower, to feed our children, to take food for ourselves. They don't give us any money, no child support, no salaries. We don't even have jobs anymore... Look at us, what kind of separatists are we?"
Refugees are now awaiting temporary accommodation. Living a normal everyday life was impossible while hiding in Kramatorsk bomb shelters, a woman said: "We couldn't even go home to take a shower, to feed our children, to take food for ourselves. They don't give us any money, no child support, no salaries. We don't even have jobs anymore... Look at us, what kind of separatists are we?"
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