Ukraine: Rebels fire on civilian convoy

Ukraine’s government said Monday that pro-Russian rebels in the country's east fired rockets and mortars on civilians in a convoy trying to flee the region’s intense fighting.

The separatists denied responsibility for the attack, and one rebel leader suggested the incident might not have taken place.

“Many people were killed, among them women and children,” Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s national security council, said at a briefing. “The rebels were expecting the convoy and destroyed it entirely … We haven’t been able to count the number of victims … Dozens [were killed].”

The attack took place between the towns of Svitlivka and Khrashchuvate, which are on the main road leading from the besieged city of Luhansk to Russia. The road is likely the one that an expected convoy of Russian humanitarian aid will take if Ukraine allows it into the country. 

The convoy came under fire from rebel Grad and mortar launchers. “The force of the blow on the convoy was so strong that people were burned alive in the vehicles. They weren’t able to get themselves out,” military spokesman Anatoly Proshin told Ukrainian news channel 112.ua.

Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky, a spokesman for the Ukrainian government’s military operation in the east, said that 15 bodies were recovered from the smoldering vehicles and servicemen were collecting parts of at least 10 more bodies.

A rebel leader denied his forces had the military capability to conduct such an assault and accused Kiev forces of regularly attacking the area and using Russian-made Grad rockets.

Donetsk rebel chief Alexander Zakharchenko insisted that no such attack took place. His deputy, Andrei Purgin, said he had no information about an attack and insisted it was not by his forces.

“If someone was killed, it wasn’t us but the Ukrainian military,” Purgin said. 

The United States condemned the attack but said it was unable to confirm who was responsible.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which is set to take responsibility for the aid convoy if it enters Ukraine, has demanded security guarantees for the mission from all sides. As of midday, there was no indication the guarantees had been given.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier said he expects the extensive humanitarian aid mission for eastern Ukraine to enter the country in the near future.

Speaking at news conference in Berlin — where he met a day earlier with his counterparts from Ukraine, France and Germany — Lavrov said Monday that all questions regarding the mission had been answered and that agreement had been reached with Ukraine and the ICRC. It was not clear if he was referring to the security guarantees.

The humanitarian aid convoy from Russia has been regarded with suspicion by Ukraine and Western countries, which suggest it could be used to spirit in weapons for the separatists, who are gradually losing ground to Ukrainian forces.

Wire services