At least one civilian has been killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk after an army shell hit an apartment building amid intense fire on rebel positions. An RT correspondent says the city has seen one of its worst shellings in months.
“There was fire, shelling for about two hours and it was
almost non-stop…blast after blast, you could feel the vibrations
from the explosions, kilometers away from the frontline,”
RT’s Murad Gazdiev said over the phone from Donetsk.
According to Gazdiev, the attack centered on northern Donetsk,
where the previously contested airport is located, but at least
one shell landed on a civilian building. RT’s crew rushed to the
area to find out if the report was true.
“We found the residents who survived sitting outside,
obviously in shock, covered in dust. One elderly man who lived on
the top floor…the shell landed in his apartment. The place was
almost torn apart, the walls were blasted out,” Gazdiev
said, describing the scene.
Dust covered pensioners, survivors of “ukrainian shell” impact,
recount moment of horror – curse Ukrainian govt, army pic.twitter.com/VKlHSpV5Jy
— Murad Gazdiev (@MuradoRT) May
19, 2015
Rescue workers were still trying to find the man’s remains in the
rubble, he added.
The rise in violence in eastern Ukraine comes just days after
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko vowed to “fight to the
last drop of blood” against what he called “Russian
aggressors” and called the internationally-recognized Minsk
peace roadmap a “pseudo-peace” deal in an interview with
the German TV channel ZDF. Earlier, Poroshenko’s official website
quoted him as saying: “I have no doubt – we will free the
[Donetsk] airport, because it is our land. And we will rebuild
the airport.”
READ
MORE: Poroshenko says Minsk deal ‘pseudo-peace’, vows to fight to
the last drop of blood
The Donetsk Airport had been the last strategic spot occupied by
Ukrainian troops in the rebel-held city before anti-government
forces overran the area after eight months of siege.
Poroshenko’s statement prompted reaction from both Moscow and
Washington. While the Kremlin said it “clearly violated the
Minsk agreements,” US Secretary of State John Kerry advised Poroshenko to “think twice” before
reigniting the conflict.
The Ukrainian president later backpedaled on his remarks about
the airport, accusing the Russian press of overblowing the quote.
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The latest attack comes despite US Assistant Secretary of State
Victoria Nuland, who is currently in Moscow on a Ukraine-centered
visit, saying that “there is no indication from our own
information or from my consultations in Kiev that anybody on the
Ukrainian side, anybody in leadership…has any intention of
launching new hostilities.”
However, Daniel McAdams, the Executive Director of the Ron Paul
Institute for Peace and Prosperity, believes the latest spate of
violence has clearly been coordinated with Kiev’s supporters in
Washington.
“I think it would be very naïve to think that Poroshenko was
doing that on his own. Even though we heard Kerry last week
saying that Poroshenko’s vow to retake eastern Ukraine, that he
should shut up about it, the US has been training Ukrainian
troops, it’s been sending in dozens if not more Humvees and other
equipment. They’re providing the capability of the Ukrainian
National Guard and Army to attack eastern Ukraine – why should
there be any surprise they’ve been emboldened by this US
assistance?”
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MORE: No Ukraine for McCain: US constitution precludes senator
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According to McAdams, there is no indication the US government
has demanded that Kiev cooled down its stance on rebel-controlled
areas in eastern Ukraine, while the military training and support
have continued.
The shelling of Donetsk also comes on the heels of Nuland’s visit
to Kiev, which is no coincidence, according to the former foreign
affairs advisor to Ron Paul.
“Any time a major US official has gone to the region, some attack
has happened afterward – remember the CIA [director John Brennan]
was there a couple of times and attacks immediately followed.
This just seems to be another of those patterns,” McAdams
argued.
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Civilian killed in intense Ukrainian army shelling of Donetsk despite ceasefire
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