Artillery shells damage schools, kindergarten in eastern Ukraine
Two school buildings and a kindergarten have been reportedly damaged in artillery attacks in the city of Gorlovka, in Ukraine's restive east.
Eduard Basurin, a representative of the defense department of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, said on Wednesday that “Ukrainian servicemen have been intentionally shelling residential areas” in the city.
The shelling began during the late hours of Tuesday and continued until Wednesday morning.
A bomb shell also destroyed the roof of a multi-storied apartment building in Gorlovka, known as Horlivka in Ukrainian language, which is located about 45 kilometers (28 miles) northeast of the flashpoint city of Donetsk, the Russian News Agency Tass reported.
Two artillery shells fell onto the territory of the kindergarten, Basurin said.
There have been no reports on possible casualties.
The shelling comes against the backdrop of tensions in the Russia-Ukraine relations. The government in Kiev and its Western allies accuse Moscow of supporting pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies the allegation.
During peace talks in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on February 11-12, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine reached a deal, dubbed Minsk II, on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from front lines in eastern Ukraine, and a ceasefire, which officially went into effect on February 15. Sporadic clashes have been reported ever since.
Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east have been hit by deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations to crush the pro-Russians in mid-April 2014.
More than 6,000 people have died in Ukraine’s conflict, the UN says. Around 1.5 million people have also been forced from their homes over the recent months of the turmoil.
MRA/HSN/HRB
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