Rebels Killed Dozens in Attack on Refugees, Ukraine Says

By Andrew E. Kramer, Andrew Higgins and David M. Herszenhorn

18 August 2014

DONETSK, Ukraine — Separatists rebels on Monday attacked a caravan of cars carrying refugees trying to flee war-ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing “dozens” of people in a devastating barrage of artillery fire, Ukrainian military officials said, though rebel leaders denied there had been any attack at all.

Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, told a briefing in Kiev, the capital, that “terrorists had perpetrated a bloody crime” by attacking the refugee convoy with Grad rocket systems and other heavy weapons supplied by Russia.

Although Colonel Lysenko did not give a precise tally of the fatalities, if confirmed, the incident would easily rank among the most deadly for civilians since separatist militants began seizing cities and towns in the region more than four months ago.

“Many people died, including women and children,” he said, adding that the assault took place on the main southern highway leading out of the regional capital of Luhansk, between the villages of Khryashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka.

The highway where Ukraine says the attack took place connects Luhansk, which has been the focus of a government offensive to regain control of territory controlled by separatists, with the Russian border. The road has seen heavy fighting in recent days as Ukrainian forces have tried to seal off supply routes into the city from Russia that are used by militants to replenish their supply of weaponry and fighters.

Here in Donetsk, the last major rebel stronghold, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, denied that any such incident had occurred.

“Not one column of refugees was fired on in Luhansk at that time,” Mr. Zakharchenko told journalists.

“The Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic did not shoot at refugees with Grad supposedly provided by Russia,” he said.

All Grad rocket launchers in Luhansk, he said, were captured as “trophy” weapons from the Ukrainian Army, not provided by Russia. About the refugee convoy, he added, “we would not form a column ourselves and then shoot at it ourselves.”

Mr. Zakharchenko then countered with his own allegation of war crimes.

The Ukrainian Army, he said, had used a chemical weapon in combat in eastern Ukraine, though its exact nature was unclear. Pro-Russian soldiers operating in a village where cluster munitions had fallen developed rashes and became ill, he said.

“The cluster munitions held an unknown substance,” he said. “After the explosion of these bombs, everything living died in this village. Some of the fighters in this area are in the hospital, others felt bad and have rashes.” Mr. Zakharchenko’s claim could not be immediately verified.

There was no independent confirmation of the Ukrainian government’s report, which followed repeated rebel accusations that Ukraine is responsible for an increasing number of civilian casualties in the combat zone.

Russia has accused Ukraine of stepping up its operations in the area to wreck what Moscow describes as a humanitarian mission involving a convoy of about 270 trucks carrying relief supplies. The trucks have been stalled for days on the Russian side of the border and had planned to take the same highway into Luhansk.

The report of civilian deaths provided a grim backdrop as diplomatic efforts to resolve the Ukraine crisis failed to make any progress on Monday during talks in Berlin among the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany.

Leaving the session, the diplomats said they were no closer to a cease-fire or a long-term political settlement.

The Ukrainian government’s advance on the rebels is raising pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who has pledged to support Russians everywhere but has refused to acknowledge any direct military assistance to the separatists. On Sunday, Mr. Putin’s spokesman again denied sending any military aid to the rebels.

With the rebels’ defeat seeming increasingly inevitable, Russia has repeated its demand that President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine order a cease-fire. Speaking to reporters in Berlin on Monday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, called on the United States and its allies to pressure Kiev to pull back its forces.

“There are things for our Western partners, who have a direct influence on Kiev, to work on in this field,” Mr. Lavrov said, adding that the talks in Berlin, which the United States did not attend, had failed to achieve any progress.

“We are not able to report positive results on the issues of a cease-fire, nor on the political process, first of all,” Mr. Lavrov said. “We have confirmed the Russian position, which is that a cease-fire, as has been declared many times, should be unconditional.”

Mr. Lavrov said that there was an agreement to allow the truck convoy to cross into Ukraine, though it remained stalled.

Along the border, however, nothing had changed by Monday afternoon.

“There is no movement. Nothing is happening,” said Sergey Kravchenko, a representative for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry currently in the Rostov region.

The International Committee of the Red Cross had said on Saturday that an initial agreement had been reached for the trucks to be inspected by Ukrainian border guards, but negotiations on technicalities were continuing.

The truck convoy departed from Moscow on Tuesday and arrived in the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky on Thursday, where it parked at a field camp close to several military bases.

Ukraine has lost authority over large swaths of its eastern border to rebels, and the border crossing is currently controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.

About 60 Ukrainian border guards arrived at the border post from Russian territory on Friday evening and have been negotiating with the Russian government and representatives of the Red Cross for several days.

At the talks in Berlin, which lasted for five hours, German officials sought to keep discussions among foreign ministers focused on the larger issues and to avoid getting bogged down in discussions surrounding the aid convoy.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the diplomats were to return to their respective capitals to consult on how talks could be continued.

Mr. Steinmeier said a decision could be reached by Tuesday but did not elaborate.

Featured Image: People lined up for food at a temporary camp set up for Ukrainian refugees on the Russian side of the border with Ukraine. Credit: Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters