Donetsk, Jun 23 - DAN. The Donetsk People’s Republic militia has evacuated the body of a resident of the Alexandrovka settlement in western Donetsk killed in shelling by Ukrainian forces, head of the DPR Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination (JCCC) Ruslan Yakubov said on Tuesday.
The civilian was killed in a Ukrainian army strike on Monday. His body could not be evacuated because of continuing aimed fire by Ukrainian army units.
“It was only in the morning that we obtained ceasefire guarantees from Ukraine,” Yakubov said. “DPR militiamen evacuated the victim’s body and two civilians from the scene at 8:40 and Ukrainian armed formation began to shell Alexandrovka again using recoilless guns.”
Ukraine had kept ignoring the DPR's ceasefire requests and Ukrainian armed formations promptly opened fire at the rescue group as soon as it tried to approach the scene of the victim’s death. According to Yakubov, two civilians had also come under fire and had to hide at an abandoned pig farm the whole night.
“It’s not the first time Ukraine ignores the accords and international commitments within the framework of the Minsk talks. This situation developed because of the inaction of the western guarantor countries; it also allowed Kiev not to extend security guarantee for the Yelenovka water pipe repairs for more than six months amid the coronavirus infection epidemic," he said.
Earlier reports said that Ukrainian armed formations fired grenade launchers at the Luganskoye and Alexandrovka settlements on the Donetsk axis three times over the past 24 hours.*jk