Shelling of refugee convoy in Luhansk region leaves 17 dead - Kyiv
KYIV. Aug 19 (Interfax) - Seventeen bodies and six wounded victims were found where a refugee convoy had been shelled in the Luhansk region on Monday, spokesman for the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council Andriy Lysenko said on Tuesday.
"Fifteen bodies were recovered at the scene yesterday, and two other bodies plus wounded victims were delivered to hospitals. So, the shelling attack left 17 people killed and six wounded," he said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He said no information is available about how many people there were in the convoy, but several motor vehicles managed to leave the shelled area unharmed.
He said the Ukrainian military is looking for eyewitnesses.
"Details that have arrived suggest that two military motor vehicles provided to refugees had been destroyed. These motor vehicles carried no weapons and had white flags," Lysenko said.
Reports earlier said that the convoy was shelled on Monday morning near the populated areas of Khryashchevatoye and Novosvetlovka in the Luhansk region.
The Ukrainian forces laid the blame for the shelling on the militia.
The militia, however, rejected the accusations. "No one shelled the convoy, of course," Konstantin Knyrik, spokesman for the South-eastern Front information center, told Interfax. He said Kyiv's claims were "blatant propaganda."
