UKRAINE-CRISIS/BUS SHELLING-POWS Pro-Russian rebels parade Ukrainian prisoners of war in Donetsk

Record ID: 298128

  • Title: UKRAINE-CRISIS/BUS SHELLING-POWS Pro-Russian rebels parade Ukrainian prisoners of war in Donetsk
  • Date: 22nd January 2015
  • Summary: DONETSK, UKRAINE (JANUARY 22, 2015) (REUTERS) UKRAINIAN PRISONER OF WAR (POW) AT BUS SHELLING SCENE ASKED (Russian): 'WHO DID THIS? POW LEAD AWAY, MAN PUNCHING HIM IN FACE POW LEAD TO CAR, OLD MAN BEATING HIS ON BACK POW BEING BEATEN NEAR CAR, PUSHED INTO CAR PEOPLE SHOUTING INTO CAR (Russian), 'A CURSE ON YOU', 'WE SHOULD NOT EVEN SPARE ROPES ON THEM', 'LET ME KILL HIM, LET ME BITE OFF HIS EAR' VARIOUS REBEL FIGHTERS OF LAUNCHING ROCKETS VARIOUS OF TANKS AND PEOPLE NEXT TO DAMAGED APARTMENT BLOCK VARIOUS OF COFFINS AND PLASTIC BAG (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) LEADER OD SELF-PROCLAIMED 'DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC', ALEXANDER ZAKHARCHENKO, SAYING: "These are your children; this is your flesh and blood. What did we do to you so bad or even what did they do to you so bad that you are sending them to die?" MOTHER OF KILLED UKRAINIAN SOLDIER ZAKHARCHENKO TALKING NEXT TO COFFINS TANK WITH REBELS PASSING BY, PEOPLE HEARD CHEERING VARIOUS UKRAINIAN POWS CLIMBING OFF TRUCK VARIOUS OF UKRAINIAN POWS WITH BRUISED FACES ZAKHARCHENKO TALKING TO CAPTURED UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS UKRAINIAN POW WITH SCRATCHED FACE / BANDAGED HAND VARIOUS OF POWS WITH BRUISES AND SCRATCHES (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) UKRAINIAN POW, VOLODYMYR, SAYING: "I do not want to fight against my brothers. I do not want to do it ever. (I am from the town of) Ternopil. (My name is) Volodya. I do not want to fight anymore." UKRAINIAN POWS VARIOUS OF UKRAINIAN POWS CARRYING COFFINS VARIOUS OF POWS LOADING COFFINS INTO TRUCK REBEL FIGHTER GIVING CIGARETTE TO UKRAINIAN POW / POWS STANDING AND SMOKING POWS CLIMBING OUT OF TRUCK IN STREET POWS CLIMBING OFF / WOMAN BEATING POW ON HEAD, SOMEONE BEATING POW WITH BAG WOMAN GRABBING POW'S JACKET, WALKING AWAY, SHOUTING OFF CAMERA (Russian) 'BEASTS' POWS NEXT TO CAR VARIOUS OF POWS MARCHING ALONG STREET GUARDED BY REBEL FIGHTERS POWS MARCHING AWAY ZAKHARCHENKO SURROUNDED BY ARMED FIGHTERS MARCHING AFTER COLUMN
  • Embargoed: 6th February 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA665N0VMTTMP4DTMDJPZKUDLBK
  • Story Text: Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war, many of them captured during fighting for the Donetsk airport, were paraded on Thursday (January 22) through the rebel-held city.
    Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko earlier called on local residents to gather at the scene of a deadly trolleybus attack that killed at least eight civilians on Thursday, promising them the opportunity to confront captured Ukrainian servicemen.
    An artillery shell or mortar struck a public transit stop in the rebel-controlled Donetsk in eastern Ukraine during the morning.
    Rebels blame the Ukrainian side for shelling residential area, while Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said it was the work of separatists and that Russia bears responsibility for it.
    Earlier in the morning a handcuffed prisoner introduced to the crowd as a "Ukrainian colonel" was shouted at and punched and beaten by civilians near the shelled trolleybus. People were heard screaming "A curse on you!", "We should not even spare ropes on them!", "Let me kill him. Let me bite off his ear!" into a car, where the POW was put by rebels.
    The strike, which wrecked a trolleybus and blew out windows nearby, followed a night of intense fighting at the city's main airport and diplomatic talks in Berlin involving Ukraine and Russia.
    Ukrainian military spokesman Vladislav Seleznyov said 10 Ukrainian soldiers were killed overnight, six at the airport complex, a symbolic target where a small group of government defenders have been holding out against Russian-backed separatists for months.
    He later said government forces had withdrawn from the airport's new terminal, the core of the complex.
    On Thursday pro-Russian separatists handed the bodies of eight soldiers killed in fighting for the airport to Ukrainian side.
    Standing next to a mother of one of the killed Ukrainians, Zakharchenko said the death of the soldiers was Ukraine's fault.
    "These are your children; this is your flesh and blood. What did we do to you so bad or even what did they do to you so bad that you are sending them to die?" he said.
    The coffins with the Ukrainians' bodies were loaded into the trucks by bruised and visibly beaten Ukrainian prisoners of war.
    "I do not want to fight against my brothers. I do not want to do it ever. (I am from the town of) Ternopil. (My name is) Volodya. I do not want to fight anymore," one of them, Volodymyr, said.
    Later the POWs were paraded along the street in Donetsk, watched by local residents. Women punched some of the Ukrainians dressed in civil clothing and asking them why they came to the Donbass - the region where Donetsk is located.
    Modest progress appeared to have been made in four-way talks late on Wednesday (January 21) in Berlin involving Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France on the crisis.
    German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said foreign ministers had agreed on a "demarcation line" between pro-Russian fighters and Kiev's forces from which withdrawal of heavy weapons could start. There were no details.
    A joint statement issued by the German foreign ministry said tangible progress on implementation of a 12-point protocol drawn up in Minsk in September had to be achieved before a summit was possible.
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