Luhansk releases remains of 2 dead Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv
LUHANSK. Feb 20 (Interfax) - Representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) have released to Kyiv the body of a Ukrainian serviceman killed in an attempt to break through LPR positions near the community of Holubivske on February 18, Olha Kobtseva, the LPR's delegate to the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for settling the conflict in Donbas, told journalists.
The LPR also released the remains of a Ukrainian armed forces soldier killed on the grounds of the Luhansk airport in 2014 to representatives of Kyiv, Kobtseva said on Thursday.
"Search efforts and molecular tests have helped identify the dead, and the Ukrainian side was notified through a negotiating process. Therefore, we have fulfilled our obligations today by releasing the dead body and the skeletal remains. Both dead servicemen have been identified," she told journalists on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said the Ukrainian servicemen who were injured in the armed clash on February 18 had been taken by helicopter to a military clinical center in Kharkiv, where they were provided with emergency medical care and began a course of treatment.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said, citing Medical Service Col. Yuriy Podolyan, chief of the Kharkiv clinical center, that all patients taken there from the combat zone in Donbas on Tuesday are in fair condition.
"Three people have gunshot and fragmentation wounds to soft tissues. Two other soldiers arrived with combat trauma caused by an explosion," Podolyan said.
The LPR people's militia said on February 18, that two Ukrainian servicemen had been killed and three others wounded while attempting to cross a minefield in order to break through LPR positions near Holubivske.
According to Kyiv, one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and five others sustained combat injuries and trauma when the enemy attacked Ukrainian units deployed near the communities of Novotoshkivske, Orikhove, Krymske, and Khutir Vilny in the Luhansk region.