Kyiv, DPR trading rail sabotage accusations
KYIV/DONETSK. April 29 (Interfax) - An explosion which happened between the Yuzhnodonbasskaya and Olenivka stations on Wednesday morning damaged 170 meters of railroad track, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported.
"Railroad workers told the Volnovakha station police department at 5:30 a.m. today about an explosion of an unknown origin which happened on the 1,168th kilometer of the rail stretch at 4:30 a.m. About 170 meters of the track was damaged. Rail traffic was suspended," the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's department on the Donetsk railroad reported in Kyiv.
The police department said the area was beyond control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and it was "the fourth act of sabotage in two months."
A criminal case was opened on counts of sabotage.
The press center of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) wrote on its website earlier that the Ukrainian army had set off a fourth bomb on the rail stretch "for hindering independent development of the DPR and blocking its connection with the Ukrainian territory."
"The track was blown up again on the Donetsk railroad's stretch between Olenivka and Yuzhnodonbasskaya, the 1,168th kilometer PK9, at 4:30 a.m. on April 29. The explosion created a crater with a depth of five meters and a diameter of 15 meters and damaged 175 meters of the track," the report said.
The DPR said the area was controlled by Kyiv. No one was hurt in the explosion, it added.
Both the DPR and Ukraine called the explosion an act of sabotage.
