UPDATES Sunday, July 13 19:42 GMT: Nine people were killed and six others injured in a shooting by the Ukrainian army near Trudovskaya coal mine in Donetsk on Saturday, the city council said in a statement on its website, adding that previous reports of 12 people killed are wrong. The citys administrators expressed their condolences to the victims families and said the city would pay for the funerals. There have been reports of more shooting in Donetsk over the weekend, but the citys utilities and public transport are said to be functioning as normal. 17:27 GMT: Ukrainian troops fired on the town of Krasnogorovka in the Donetsk region on Sunday, according to the official Twitter account for the People’s Republic of Donetsk. A school and multiple apartment blocks were damaged and “there were many casualties,” it said. 17:23 GMT: Commenting on Sunday’s tragedy in the Rostov region, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claimed that it has never shelled Russian territory, UNN news agency reported, citing the body’s press service. Moscow’s statements on the situation, the ministry said, were “hasty and unfounded.” 16:05 GMT: Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed that the Ukrainian crisis is worsening and stressed the necessity to resume the work of the international Contact Group on Ukraine. The two leaders believe an immediate ceasefire is necessary, as well as the exchange of captives between the conflicting sides, Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said. Putin and Merkel met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday, where they arrived to watch the World Cup final. Putin voiced extreme concern over the Ukrainian militarys offensive and called such actions unacceptable, according to Peskov. Putin specifically referred to cases of Ukrainian shells reaching Russian territory. The comment comes after an artillery shell from Ukraine hit a private house in Russia’s southern Rostov region, killing one person and injuring two others. 14:18 GMT: Fierce fighting between Ukrainian troops and local militia forces started in the suburbs of the eastern city of Lugansk, said the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republics self-defense forces, Igor Strelkov, as quoted by RIA Novosti. “The enemy has thrown in about 70 tanks consisting of two compact armored groups. There is unconfirmed information that a helicopter with a SWAT team landed in the city,” Strelkov said. He added that columns of Ukrainian troops are heading to Donetsk from the south and west. 13:58 GMT: A Ukrainian military plane has violated Russian airspace, said a reporter from the Russian ‘Zvezda’ TV-channel, who was on duty in Russia’s southern town of Donetsk. “During filming, and as the Investigating Committee was working, a Ukrainian plane appeared in the sky above the suburbs of Donetsk, entering Russian territory, and carried out an airstrike on Ukrainian territory,” Maxim Gritsenko told ITAR-TASS. He added that people were scared, and they scattered. 13:22 GMT: A tent camp for Ukrainian refugees, designed for 500 people, will be moved as far as 20 km from the Russian-Ukrainian border, a representative of the regional government told ITAR-TASS on Sunday. Speaking about a meeting of the Emergency Situations Committee, Aleksandr Titov said: “A decision has been made to move the temporary housing area deeper into Russia’s territory.” Earlier today, a man was killed and two women were injured, as an artillery shell from Ukraine hit a private house in the Rostov region, where the small border town of Donetsk (not the Ukrainian city) is located. 08:33 GMT: Ukrainian troops deny earlier reports by self-defense forces, claiming they downed a Ukrainian MI-24 military helicopter near the village of Kozhevnya. “All aircrafts – planes and helicopters – engaged in the operation, are in working condition. None of them have been shot down over the last three days,” Andrey Lysenko, spokesman at the information center for Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, told RIA Novosti. Saturday, July 12 19:57 GMT: The possibility of Russian and Ukrainian presidents meeting at the World Cup final in Rio de Janeiro on July 13 cannot be ruled out, Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Saturday. State leaders – Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko among them – will be present at the World Cup final match. There will be a separate room at the stadium for the leaders, so the possibility [of a meeting] can of course not be ruled out, Peskov said. The spokesman added that no separate meeting with the Ukrainian president has been planned. He did, however, confirm Putins talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying the situation in Ukraine will be discussed. 02:52 GMT: More than 15 suspects – all officers of the Ukrainian military – are being investigated over the killing of civilians in eastern Ukraine, Itar-Tass quoted Russias Investigative Committee spokesperson, Vladimir Markin, as saying. One of the suspects is battalion commander Col. Malamen, who is thought to have personally ordered troops to shoot at civilians. The military opened fire on a vehicle carrying journalists on June 30, killing a cameraman for Russias Channel One, Anatoly Klyan. 02:06 GMT: Russian TV channels have once again been turned off in Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, Mariupol, and the south of Odessa region in eastern Ukraine, the state media watchdog reported after the army took control of the area. All Ukrainian TV channels have been turned back on. 02:02 GMT: German Chancellor Angela Merkel asked Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko during a telephone conversation on Thursday to keep a “sense of proportion” when dealing with eastern Ukraine’s self-defense forces, Reuters quoted a German government spokesman as saying. The Chancellor urged President Poroshenko to maintain a sense of proportion in his legitimate actions against the separatists and to protect the civilian population, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement. Both agreed that talks of the contact group ... are urgently needed now in order to begin the implementation of Poroshenkos peace plan and a mutual ceasefire, he said.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 23:58:27 +0000
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