Kindergarten Shelled By Russian-Backed Separatist
Ukraine accused Russian-backed separatist forces of shelling a kindergarten in the Donbas region, breaking a ceasefire that was established after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
“Ukrainian Stanytsia Luhanska village was shelled with heavy weapons from the occupied territory of the Donbas. Civilian infrastructure damaged,” Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday.
A kindergarten was damaged when it was shelled Thursday and Kyiv tied the attack to Russia amassing tens of thousands of troops at the Ukrainian border and called it “provocation.” Russian state-backed media allege Ukrainian forces fired shells into the Kremlin-backed territory, but the Ukrainian Joint Forces Operation denied the accusation.
“We call on all partners to swiftly condemn this severe violation of Minsk agreements by Russia amid an already tense security situation,” Kuleba said.
“With particular cynicism, the Russian occupation troops shelled the village of Stanytsa Lugansk in the Luhansk region,” the Ukrainian military said. “As a result of the use of heavy artillery weapons by terrorists, shells hit the kindergarten building. According to preliminary data, two civilians received shell shock.”
Multiple shelling incidents were recorded in eastern Ukraine early Thursday by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, marking the most breaches reported in the long-running conflict, according to a top Ukrainian government official.
Russia maintains it has no plans to invade Ukraine and on Tuesday said that some of its previously deployed troops would return to base after completing military drills, but the U.S. said it hasn’t seen any evidence that Russia followed through on those claims yet.