Four Ukrainian troops injured in Shchastya skirmishes - Luhansk authorities
KYIV. July 27 (Interfax) - The past 24 hours saw militias firing tank shells, grenades and smalls arms against the town of Shchastya in the Luhansk region, the Luhansk regional military-civilian administration said on its Facebook page on Monday.
Shells hit a bus terminal, the building of a local branch of the State Emergency Situations Service, the Luhansk thermal power plant and Pervomaiska Street. Two houses and a shed caught fire and overhead power lines were destroyed as a result, the authorities said.
The attack occurred just as a delegation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) special monitoring mission, led by the Trilateral Contact Group humanitarian subgroup's coordinator, Tony Frisch, was heading to Shchastya from Luhansk, the authorities said. The attack was so intense that the mission has been unable to make it to a meeting with the regional governor, Heorhiy Tuka, the authorities said.
For his part, Tuka said that four members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces had been injured in yesterday's skirmishes between Ukrainian forces and militias. The soldiers are in satisfactory condition and have been taken to a military hospital in the town of Svatove.
Among militias, two were killed and several injured, the governor said.
In the village of Orikhove, Popasna District, a Ukrainian military service member, who is from Vinnytsa, was injured in a tripwire mine explosion.
The regional administration also reported a grenade and mortar attack on the village of Stanitsa Luhanska. Shells hit and caused three houses to catch fire, power supplies to the villages of Makarove and Valuiske have been cut off. A repair effort is underway.
