During all week russian occupational troops severely shelled with a heavy artillery both positions of Ukrainian military and local citizens near Avdiyivka. According to the information from the independent international investigative group Bellingcat from the area of the hypermarket Auchan on a Donetsk territory controlled by separatists enemy repeatedly shelled Avdiyivka out of MLRS at least January 31st and February 1 of 2017. One of the shelled locations is 200 meters east of the supermarket, and less than 500 meters away from school and houses. A few attacks were conducted during the day, when civilian cars were on the road.
Photo from a satellite shows the traces of launches of MLRS by the enemy at the supermarket
The occupier forces shelled Avdiyivka again in the evening of February 2nd at 9 PM. In particular, shells were aimed to hit the humanitarian aid provision points. Among the targets of the enemy was district near a secondary school №2 and stadium “Himik” (Chemist) in the city center, where the tent camp and points for warming are located.
According to a message of the Head of Donetsk Civil–Military Administration Pavlo Zhebrivskiy in a result of shelling 2 people died and 3 got injured.
Among the dead are local women and a driver of the emergency rescue special unit of the Headquarters of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Donetsk region Sergiy Gorban.
Driver of this damaged rescue car was killed during shelling. Photo by Masi Nayyem
The Head of State Fire and Rescue Unit №15 of Avdiyivka, Сivil Defense Service Lieutenant Colonel Dmytro Tryteykin seriously wounded stomach during the attack. Surgery lasted 3.5 hours. State of Dmytro is consistently heavy. After he was transferred to the hospital 66th.
British photographer Christopher Nunn was also injured. According to the information of ATO zone Press Center Headquarters he was evacuated to 66th military medical hospital, and after examination taken to the regional clinical hospital of I. I. Mechnikov.
“I’m alive”, – twitted Christopher afterwards.
Finally, another local women got light injury after a missile hit 5-store building, but refused hospitalization.
Despite all the injuries and deaths of 2 people, citizens of Avdiyivka still go towards the stadium, where the projectile hit. Masi Nayyem wrote about it on his Facebook page.
Provocation is looming in Donetsk. During the night “Motel” was under fire, and occupants already accused the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this. Also, on the background of a video can be seen launches of Grad from the residential sector of Donetsk.
Citizens of a Kiev district of Donetsk already started to evacuate. According to various sources, heavy artillery is been collected in this particular area of Donetsk. According to the message from Georgiy Tuka, local citizens even tried to stop the artillery that attacked Avdiyivka, but they were called “traitors” and driven away with a shots in the air.
That is why we should expect new and more powerful attacks from the enemy near Avdiyivka and/or new provocations with shelling of Donetsk civilians by russian occupying forces.
About the attacks near Avdiyivka once again informed the representatives of Ukraine at the UN Security Council meeting.
Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko demonstrate visual evidence of shelling in Avdiyivka
We need international support, but the reaction of the UN can only be expressed as another condemnation of actions of Russia, and a “deep concern” in the development of events in Avdiyivka. So Ukraine can rely only on its own strength and army in confrontation with the military aggressor.
According to information from volunteer Yuri Moskalenko, today in the morning to Avdiyivka was shelled with Grad again. Quote:
“While there is still a connection… Avdiyivka (Zenit, Shakhtar, Promka). 03/FEB/2017, 8:03 AM. Enemy Grad’s shelled for 7 minutes. Everything is OK. At the same 4 tank attacks. During the night and in the morning we repeled several attacks. Everybody and everything is on its places. Ukrainian military hold the positions with honour, making enemy run away screaming.”
Courageous defenders of Ukraine of 72th Separate Mechanized brigade, which restrain the aggressor near Avdiyivka right now, rely on our help. We already packed another batch of equipment for Ukrainian defenders. However, only your contribution in terms of The Rapid Response Project allows volunteers to transfer more of a necessary equipment to the front line more often. Join the project to save life.
