Interfax: Moscow insists Kyiv restore ceasefire
MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry insists that the Ukrainian authorities immediately stop the bombardment of civilian sites in the southeast, which is claiming civilian lives.
“We once again demand that the Ukrainian authorities stop shooting on civilian sites and save human lives,” the ministry said in a commentary posted on Thursday.
The ministry is hopeful that “positive results of the quadripartite meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine which was held in Berlin on July 2 and produced a joint declaration will convince the Ukrainian side to restore the ceasefire regime immediately.”
Ukrainian servicemen opened mortar fire on the Topolek orphanage in the Artem neighborhood of Slovyansk, Donetsk region, in the early hours of July 2. Mines hit the orphanage roof and destroyed an entire story. The children were evacuated on May 23 but the employees stayed. They were hiding in the basement when the bombardment began and managed to go outside only in the morning.
An electrician died and a female employee of the Seversky Donets – Donbas canal pumping station was heavily injured in the artillery shelling of the pumping station in the morning of July 2. The pump was disabled and the water supply by the Seversky Donets – Donbas canal was halted.
The village of Staraya Kondrashovka, 20 kilometers away from Luhansk, was bombarded in the same morning. Seven civilians, among them a five-year-old child, died. Eight people sustained fragmentation injuries and were taken to a hospital. Fifteen homes were razed to the ground. There were no military sites of the militia nearby and the gunfire harmed civilians only.
In the afternoon of July 2 the Ukrainian Air Force raided the urban-type settlement Stanitsa Luhanskaya, ten kilometers away from Luhansk. Eyewitnesses said the Ukrainian planes dropped at least three heavy bombs on the area. Homes were severely damaged in the settlement center.
A civilian bus attempting to depart from Slovyansk came under fire near a bridge across the Kazenny Torets River on July 2. Two people died and three were injured.
The city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region was put under artillery fire again early in the morning on July 3. Homes were damaged and civilian casualties were reported. Grad launchers fired on the Kramatorsk suburbs.
Several shells fired on the Ukrainian territory hit the Russian Novoshakhtinsk border crossing point in the morning of July 3. The border post building, the parking lot and the customs terminal were damaged.