Russia’s interim Emergencies Minister Alexander Chupriyan reported that more than 40,000 refugees from the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk (DPR) and Lugansk (LPR), in Ukraine, arrived in the Rostov region.
He explained that the refugees have had hot meals and been provided with means of communication at the temporary reception places. He also said that more than 2,000 refugees from Donbass were sent by train to Russia’s Voronezh and Kursk regions, the TASS news agency reported.
According to DPR representatives at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime, the Ukrainian army launched attacks on the towns of Staromikhailovka, Petrovskoye and Kommunarovka.
The Donetsk People’s Militia reported that as of 10:00 local time, Ukrainian government forces attacked 32 locations in the region by launching more than 1,120 projectiles, mines, and grenades.
As reported, the Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, Denis Monasturski, along with deputies of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) and representatives of the foreign media were under fire this Saturday and had to be evacuated to a safe place.
The CNN reported later that its journalists and colleagues from the French agency AFP were with the minister at the time of the attack.
The European Union, for its part, condemned the use of heavy weapons and “indiscriminate” attacks in civilian areas, which it considered “a clear violation of the Minsk agreements and international humanitarian law.”
This Friday, the Donetsk and Lugansk headquarters urged the population to evacuate to Russia in the face of an upsurge in hostilities and a possible offensive by Kiev in the Donbass region.
