UKRAINE-CRISIS/SHELLING-HORLIVKA Shelling intensifies in eastern Ukraine, houses in Horlivka hit overnight

Record ID: 144502

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/SHELLING-HORLIVKA Shelling intensifies in eastern Ukraine, houses in Horlivka hit overnight
  • Date: 10th August 2015
  • Summary: HORLIVKA, UKRAINE (AUGUST 10, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HOUSE WITH WINDOWS COVERED WITH PLASTIC WINDOW FRAME YOUNG GIRLS WALKING NEAR HOUSE LOCAL RESIDENT, YELENA, SHOWING HER APARTMENT WITH DAMAGED CEILING AND SHATTERED WINDOWS BEDS IN ROOM YELENA HOLDING HER SON SUFFERING FROM CEREBRAL PALSY VARIOUS OF STROLLER NEXT TO BASEMENT ENTRANCE (SOUNDBITE) HORLIVKA RESIDENT, YE
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA533OOXTX6M2AU3QF3IQXJYHFZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At least one person was killed on Sunday (August 9) in the rebel-held town of Horlivka north-east of Donetsk.
    Both Ukrainian military and Russia-backed separatists accused each other of shelling residential areas.
    Local residents In Horlivka said the shelling has intensified during the last weeks. People said they were spending most of the time in the basements of their damaged houses.
    Local resident Yelena on Monday (August 10) showed her apartment with damaged ceiling and glass missing in all window frames. She said there was no electricity or gas to cook food or hot water.
    Yelena's one-year-old son who is suffering Cerebral palsy has not seen a doctor or got any medical drugs for a few months, according to Yelena.
    "Yesterday morning at about 9 a.m. they have started shelling. A half of the roof has been destroyed, the whole apartment was covered with debris, people had moved out from there. Now we live and at any moment it can fall in our apartment. We don't have windows, we have nothing," she says adding her family would want to leave the town caught between the sides of the conflict but has nowhere to go.
    Yelena's neighbour said the shelling continued day and night.
    "(You ask) what has happened? They are killing us like dogs, that's what happened. Since the 25th (of July) they are shelling day and night. Yesterday they have started at 8.30 a.m. and finished at 4 p.m.," the woman said.
    Many houses in Horlivka are damaged. But some people believe the shelling will be over soon and hope for peace to be reached shortly. Vladimir showed journalists damaged walls in his apartment block.
    "It was not direct (hit). Here it hit the front side. And two shells hit the roof. That was direct. In both places. But I think we will rebuild. The war will be over soon. And we will rebuild and start living afresh."
    On Monday Ukraine accused pro-Russian rebels of carrying out the heaviest artillery attacks on government positions in six months and warned of signs the conflict was escalating despite a ceasefire deal.
    "Around 400 fighters supported by ten tanks, ten military infantry vehicles and other weaponry launched an offensive in the area of Starohnativka which is located in the triangle Volnovakha-Komsomolske-Telmanove," Kiev military spokesman Andriy Lysenko told news conference.
    The village of Starohnativka is located 50 km (30 miles) north of the Kiev-held port city of Mariupol. The rebels denied attacking government troops.
    Control of Mariupol could help the rebels form a corridor to the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine last year.
    A ceasefire deal, signed in mid-February, has failed to stem the violence in the eastern conflict zone. Both sides regularly accuse the other of violating the terms of the peace agreement and casualties are reported almost daily.
    Lysenko described rebel shelling in the past 24 hours as the heaviest since a battle for the town of Debaltseve in February.
    Ukrainian troops halted the offensive using artillery and regained lost ground, Lysenko said.
    Senior separatist commander Eduard Basurin denied the rebels had attacked government troops and accused Ukraine of intensive shelling, rebel press service DAN reported.
    Earlier another military spokesman, Yaroslav Chepurny, said the incident showed that Mariupol city remained under threat from separatists.
    One Ukrainian servicemen was killed, one was missing in action and 16 were wounded in the past 24 hours, Lysenko said.
    More than 6,500 soldiers, separatists and civilians have been killed since fighting between Ukrainian troops and rebels seeking independence from Kiev erupted in April 2014, according to U.N. estimates.
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