Ukraine crisis: Dozens feared killed
28 May 2014 11:21 PM GMT
High-calibre weapons fire echoed sporadically on Tuesday through the eastern city of Donetsk and the mayor urged residents to stay home a day after fighting between Ukrainian troops and separatist rebels reportedly killed dozens.
Donetsk mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko said 40 people, including two civilians, were killed on Monday after troops repelled a rebel attempt to seize control of the airport, Ukraine’s second-largest. Local morgues were overflowing with bodies and rebel leaders said Tuesday that the death toll could rise up to 100.
The city of about one million was mostly quiet in the afternoon after an arson attack in the morning that torched a local hockey rink. Occasional gunfire was heard in the morning outside Donetsk airport.
The battles came as billionaire candy magnate Petro Poroshenko claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential vote, which authorities in Kyiv had hoped would unify the deeply divided nation. Poroshenko, who is yet to be sworn in, has vowed to negotiate a peaceful end to the insurgency in the east, but also has called the separatists ‘Somali pirates’ and promised he would stop them from sowing more chaos.
The bodies of about 30 insurgents were brought Tuesday to a hospital morgue in Donetsk, said Leonid Baranov of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, who was at the Kalinin morgue. The fighters had been wounded and were being transported to a hospital in a truck when it was shot up by government forces, Baranov said.
Baranov said up to 100 rebels were probably killed in Monday’s fighting, adding that many bodies had not been recovered because they were in areas under government control.
Pro-Russian insurgents with weapons arrive near the airport outside Donetsk, Ukraine, on Monday. Violence continues to roil the country’s east.
‘As they (Ukrainian forces) are controlling the airport and the fight was there ... we cannot right now identify exactly how many victims we have,’ he said, adding that hundreds were also wounded in the fighting.
He said the morgue was too small to hold all the bodies and authorities were searching for refrigerator trucks pending identification of the dead.
AP journalists saw many dead bodies piled up at the Kalinin morgue but could not immediately count them or confirm Baranov’s statements. Another Donetsk insurgent leader, Denis Pushilin, also said up to 100 people have been killed and asserted that up to half of them could be civilians, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Pushilin said government snipers were firing at people trying to evacuate the bodies. His comments also couldn’t be independently confirmed. Early on Tuesday, unidentified men stormed Donetsk’s main ice hockey arena and set it ablaze, according to the mayor’s office. The arena, owned by a local Ukrainian lawmaker, was to host the 2015 world championships.
By Tuesday morning, the Donetsk airport was under full government control, Ukraine’s acting
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said, adding that dozens of insurgents may have been killed but
government forces did not suffer any casualties.
Donetsk mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko said 40 people, including two civilians, were killed on Monday after troops repelled a rebel attempt to seize control of the airport, Ukraine’s second-largest. Local morgues were overflowing with bodies and rebel leaders said Tuesday that the death toll could rise up to 100.
The city of about one million was mostly quiet in the afternoon after an arson attack in the morning that torched a local hockey rink. Occasional gunfire was heard in the morning outside Donetsk airport.
The battles came as billionaire candy magnate Petro Poroshenko claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential vote, which authorities in Kyiv had hoped would unify the deeply divided nation. Poroshenko, who is yet to be sworn in, has vowed to negotiate a peaceful end to the insurgency in the east, but also has called the separatists ‘Somali pirates’ and promised he would stop them from sowing more chaos.
The bodies of about 30 insurgents were brought Tuesday to a hospital morgue in Donetsk, said Leonid Baranov of the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, who was at the Kalinin morgue. The fighters had been wounded and were being transported to a hospital in a truck when it was shot up by government forces, Baranov said.
Baranov said up to 100 rebels were probably killed in Monday’s fighting, adding that many bodies had not been recovered because they were in areas under government control.
Pro-Russian insurgents with weapons arrive near the airport outside Donetsk, Ukraine, on Monday. Violence continues to roil the country’s east.
‘As they (Ukrainian forces) are controlling the airport and the fight was there ... we cannot right now identify exactly how many victims we have,’ he said, adding that hundreds were also wounded in the fighting.
He said the morgue was too small to hold all the bodies and authorities were searching for refrigerator trucks pending identification of the dead.
AP journalists saw many dead bodies piled up at the Kalinin morgue but could not immediately count them or confirm Baranov’s statements. Another Donetsk insurgent leader, Denis Pushilin, also said up to 100 people have been killed and asserted that up to half of them could be civilians, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Pushilin said government snipers were firing at people trying to evacuate the bodies. His comments also couldn’t be independently confirmed. Early on Tuesday, unidentified men stormed Donetsk’s main ice hockey arena and set it ablaze, according to the mayor’s office. The arena, owned by a local Ukrainian lawmaker, was to host the 2015 world championships.
By Tuesday morning, the Donetsk airport was under full government control, Ukraine’s acting
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said, adding that dozens of insurgents may have been killed but
government forces did not suffer any casualties.
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