Ukrainian ombudsman denies reports on attack on bus carrying children in Donetsk region
KYIV. July 29 (Interfax) - Valeria Lutkovska, the Ukrainian parliament's human rights ombudsman, has denied the information about casualties in the attack on a bus carrying orphaned children in Donbas on July 28.
"All children who left Donetsk and their educators have reached Mariupol safely," she told a pres conference in Kyiv on Tuesday, adding that explosions indeed occurred near the bus, but no shots were fired at the bus.
Dmytro Tymchuk, the head of the group Information Resistance, earlier said: "Donetsk People's Republic Militants opened fire on a mini bus carrying children evacuated from Donbas orphanages on the road connecting Donetsk to Volnovakha yesterday. One child was killed and some ten children were wounded."
Aksana Filipishina, a representative of the Ukrainian parliamentary ombudsman for the rights of children, non-discrimination and gender equality, told the conference 310 orphaned children are now in need of evacuation from the fighting area in Donbas.
"According to our estimations, another 310 children in Donbas needed evacuation as of 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday," she said.
Lutkovska said 1,727 children who needed evacuation remained in boarding schools in the area of the military conflict.