Eleven militiamen killed in Donbas in past 24 hours - Kyiv
KYIV/LUHANSK. July 26 (Interfax) - Eleven militiamen have been killed in the army operation zone in eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, including two in a clash near Avdiivka, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.
"In the past 24 hours [...] 11 invaders were killed and 14 suffered injuries," Lysenko said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian army clashed with eight members of a hostile reconnaissance-and-sabotage group in the Avdiivka industrial zone on Monday, he said. The engagement lasted for slightly more than an hour and the hostiles retreated under cover of mortar fire, he said. "We did not suffer fatalities in that battle. The illegal armed unit lost two invaders and three were injured," Lysenko said.
In turn, self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) militia representative Andriy Marochko told reporters in Luhansk on Tuesday that the Ukrainian army's artillery had shelled friendly positions by mistake, killing six servicemen and injuring another 20.
"It has become known that target coordinates were erroneously established in a provocative attack on the republic yesterday [June 25], and a number of shells hit positions of the Polissia battalion of the 59th brigade," Marochko told the press.
"The mistake made by the Ukrainian army took the lives of six people and injured 20, including eight with heavy concussions," he said.
"This fact is kept secret by the [Ukrainian army] command," the LPR militia representative said.