Separatist bombardment of Krasnohorivka in Eastern Ukraine causes massive destruction in the town
On the morning of May 28, separatists fired on the city of Krasnohorivka in the Donetsk region. Pavlo Zhebrivskyi, head of the Donetsk civil-military administration, said on his Facebook page that separatists used fired with Grad multiple rocket launch systems, tanks and mortars. He reported that during the bombardment, a hospital was half destroyed, and two ambulances and a Niva hospital vehicle were smashed. According to him, several peaceful civilians received shrapnel wounds. However, the Ministry of Defense and the police reported different numbers of wounded.
Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense on matters of ATO [the war in the Donbas], announced at a briefing that 8 civilians from Krasnohorivka had received injuries and wounds. Other information was given by Vyacheslav Abroskin, Chief of the National Police Department in the Donetsk region. He reported that as of 13:00 on May 28, three citizens had been injured: 2 women and 1 man, but there were no casualties. He made a post about this on his Facebook page, noting that the bombardment lasted between 6 and 8:30 a.m.
A school caught fire as a result of the shelling. Four projectiles hit the hospital roof, and soldiers and police had to evacuate patients from the hospital under fire. Due to a burst of water pipeline and sewer system, part of the city had no water or sewage. Towards the evening, Veronika Bakhal, press secretary of the head office of the Donetsk Regional Emergency Service, reported that the water supply in the city had been completely restored.
Abroskin affirmed that 42 buildings were damaged. He stated that after the bombardment of Krasnohorivka by separatists, a criminal case was initiated according to the article “terrorist act” of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. Abroskin also warned that the pro-Russian separatists are planning to repeat the bombardment of the city, in order to frighten the civilian population and destabilize the situation in the city. At the same time, the chief of police said that a special division of KORD Special police had been sent to aid the citizens and also to reinforce the preservation of public order and the protection of the destroyed administrative buildings in Krasnohorivka.
The Ukrainian side of the Joint Center on Control and Coordination of issues related to the ceasefire regime and the stabilization of the demarcation line between the parties (JCCC) said that yet another bombardment of vitally important facilities in Krasnohorivka is the evidence of the gross violation of the Minsk agreements, the deliberate planning and “carrying out of terrorist acts against the civilian population”.
The JCCC also pointed out that on May 25 the separatists fired on the Krasnohorivka hospital, the local agricultural college and residential quarters.
“At the hospital they had only just managed to put in glass panes and renew the work of providing medicinal aid to the population, when there was a new strike. The next barbaric attack of the same civilian quarters demonstrates that the bandits are hitting vitally important facilities in Krasnohorivka entirely consciously and purposefully, and that no humanitarian laws or laws on waging war exist for them,” the JCCC report states.
Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman took personal control of the results of the morning’s bombardment of the city, writing about it on Facebook.
“Yet another act of terrorism from the separatists and Russian mercenaries who are causing the outrage of the entire civilized world,” the head of state announced. He pointed out that this matter is now under his personal control.
Hennadiy Zubko, Deputy Prime Minister for Regional Development, Construction and Housing, posted on his Facebook page that the restoration of the school and hospital will come from the local budget funds, but the rebuilding of homes from the private sector will be done at the reserve fund’s expense.