Ukraine refugee convoy hit by rockets, says military. Many people died when
rockets and mortars hit vehicles moving refugees from the luhansk area of
eastern ukraine, the Ukrainian Military says.
Ukraine has blamed pro-russian rebels but they have denied carrying out the
attack, near the village of novasvitlivka. A rebel news outlet reported a
heavy exchange of artillery fire in the area.
Ukrainian forces have moved into the outskirts of rebel-held luhansk where
basic supplies are running out.
Military spokesman Andre Lissenko said militants armed by Russia had fired
at a refugee convoy with mortars and grad rockets, on a road east of
luhansk. He said dozens of civilians had died including women and children.
"The convoy had white flags and was marked as civilian," Mr Lissenko said.
Another military spokesman said people had been burned alive inside their
vehicles. A spokesman for the rebel self-proclaimed donetsik people's
republic, Andre Perjin denied that rebel forces had attacked the convoy.
The ukrainians themselves have bombed the road constantly with planes and
grads. it seems they've now killed more civilians like they've been doing
for months now, he was quoted as saying.
Alexander Zakharchenko a rebel leader in donetsk told journalists," Not a
single convoy of refugees was shot at in the Luhansk region, there has been
sustained artillery shelling of luhansk, a city of 250,000 people where
civilians are suffering chronic shortages of water, food and electricity."
Before the conflict the population was closer to 420,000. hundreds of
civilians are fleeing the city every day as ukrainian forces edge into
Luhansk. The key rebel-held town of Horlivka near donetsk has been
encircled, military officials say in another sign that the separatists have
lost ground in recent days.
Also on monday, the rebel-led administration in donetsk said they had
introduced the death penalty for offenses including treason, desertion and
sabotage.
Eduard Vakubovsky, acting prosecutor general of the Self-proclaimed Donetsk
People's Republic said the penalty would also cover military crimes
committed, on the battlefield such as handing over military hardware or
weapons.
Observers said the move could indicate problems within the rebels ranks.
More than 2,000 civilians and combatants have been killed since mid-april
when Ukraine's government sent troops to put down the rebel uprising in the
east.
Russia has set an aid convoy of some 270 lorries to a base near the
ukrainian border. The lorries are parked close to a rebel-held border post
awaiting inspection as the red cross wants security guarantees before the
eight can enter ukraine.
Earlier russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov said full agreement had been
reached on the aid convoy after talks in Berlin with his counterparts from
Ukraine, Germany and France. But he said no deal had been reached on
achieving a ceasefire.
German foreign minister Frank Walter steinmeier said, the aim remains to
bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine and to prevent future victims. He said
"the talks in Berlin had been a difficult discussion but i believe and i
hope that we made progress on some points."
