Early on Monday pro Russian rebels opened fire with mortars and Grad multiple rockets launchers on a column of refugees in Khriaschuvate and Novosvitlivka villages in the Luhansk region
Ukrainska Pravda reported about it, citing head of the press center of the Pivnich (North) operational command Anatolii Proshyn.
"About 09.40 am, when refugees were taken from Khriaschuvate and Novosvitlivka villages, the militants conducted a massive fire strike against this column with mortars and Grad multiple rocket launchers," he said.
"As a result, there are many casualties. The people burned right in the cars in which they were evacuated. They were simply unable to get out of the vehicles in which they were being evacuated," Proshyn said.
"The column of refugees was evacuated by our command, so not to make people suffer. Because there is intense fighting there," he added.
Ukrainian command spokesman Proshin says refugees hit by rebel fire travelled in MILITARY vehicles with white flags.
According to him, the number of casualties is not yet known. Among dead are many women and children.
Ukrainian military spokesman Andriy Lysenko repeated the separatists fired Grad missiles and mortars at the convoy when it was traveling near Khyashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka.
Lysenko alleged that the weapons were given to the separatists by Russia.
Andrei Purgin, a senior rebel leader in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, denied that separatists were responsible for the missile strike.
Purgin said rebel forces did not have the military capability to send Grad rockets into that territory.
A rebel news outlet had reported earlier that separatists and Ukrainian government forces were exchanging heavy artillery fire on August 18 in the area where the buses had been traveling.
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