Convoy with Ukraine's Donetsk governor comes under fire in Donbas
Near the southern part of the Hranitne village in eastern Ukraine, an anti-tank missile system destroyed a KrAZ truck belonging to one of the Joint Forces divisions, the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) reported on Facebook.
“One soldier was killed as a result of an anti-tank guided missile hitting the body of the truck. Another soldier received medium severity wounds,” the report states.
The wounded soldier has received medical attention and been evacuated to a hospital.
Citing its own source, Ukrayinska Pravda writes that the truck that was hit was part of a convoy transporting Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. The governor himself was not wounded. This report has been neither confirmed nor denied by the JFO headquarters, Pravda notes.
At the start of July, the JFO reported that a Hummer ambulance had been fired upon near the Vodyane village in the Donbas. One soldier had been killed and another two wounded. The Hummer was reportedly evacuating the wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the targeting of an Armed Forces vehicle in the Donetsk region an attempt to break off the Minsk process and jeopardize the resumed negotiations in the Normandy Format, the president’s press service reported.
According to the president’s press service, Governor Kyrylenko’s vehicle was “standing nearby” when the truck was hit, but was unaffected. The incident took place on 10 July during a trip from Hranitne to the Hnutove checkpoint.
“This brazen attack clearly showed who it actually is that does not want peace in the Donbas. I perceive the shooting in Hranitne as an attempt to break off the Minsk process and to jeopardize the agreement to resume negotiations in the Normandy Format. But the provocateurs’ expectations will not be realized. Our commitment to a diplomatic solution is unchanged,” Zelensky remarked.
The president instructed Ruslan Khomchak, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and Chief of the General Staff, to redouble the military’s efforts to identify and neutralize sabotage groups and to respond immediately and severely to any other attempts at armed provocation against Ukrainian civilians and soldiers.
Zelensky also expressed his condolences to the family of the soldier who was killed, and wished the wounded one a swift recovery.