Ukrainian Security and Defense Council: Terrorists are firing at residential quarters in Donets

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Kyiv, 25 July 2014 – As terrorists retreat, they continue to set up their firing points in residential quarters, putting civilians in danger. According to the latest reports, three Grad multiple rocket launchers are located at the premises of the Donetsk Military School. “From time to time, terrorists drive through the city and fire at the residential quarters of Donetsk. In the city’s Kirovskyi district and in the Soltsevo neighborhood, militants are hiding behind camouflage three T-72 tanks and three Grad launchers,” said Colonel Andriy Lysenko, Speaker for the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council Information Center, during a press briefing at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.

In the city of Horlivka, which in fact serves as a gateway to Donetsk, anti-aircraft systems have been installed on the rooftops of multi-story buildings.

In the city of Lysychansk, which has recently been liberated from terrorists, work is underway to find the remaining weapons and ammunition, inspect and clear of mines the city’s residential buildings and infrastructure facilities. A badly wounded Ukrainian National Guard officer was found during an inspection of a local hospital. He has been evacuated to the Dnipropetrovsk hospital. Cooperation has been set up with the local population, plans are being prepared to restore critical infrastructure facilities, and the necessary resources are being estimated.

At noon today, terrorists de-energized a pump station at the Donetsk Chemical Plant in the city’s Kuybyshevskyi district. This lead to the shutdown of water supply at the enterprise.

Today at 13:25, terrorists fired mortars at Ukraine’s Marynivka border checkpoint from the side of the Dmytrivka town. After that, the militants opened provocative fire at the Russian territory.

Today, the head of the Donetsk region state administration and an employee of the domestic policy department were abducted by terrorists. According to the preliminary data, they have been taken to the Donetsk region security service building and are kept there.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that Europe should impose sanctions against Russia. In particular, he said that the Russian Federation is making attempts to destabilize Ukraine, breaching its territorial integrity and supplying weapons to separatists. If Russia does not change its approach to Ukraine, it is clear that Europe and the West should fundamentally change its approach to Russia.

US and OSCE mission stated that despite the requests of a number of delegations, Russia has refused to extend the scope of the OSCE mission to monitor the Ukrainian border and only agreed to the most restricted option. Therefore, in accordance with the resolution of the OSCE Permanent Council, the mission will be restricted to two border checkpoints where it will only be able to monitor several hundred meters of the almost 2000 km long Russia-Ukraine border.

Japan may impose further sanctions against Russia if it is confirmed that weapons manufactured in the Russian Federation were used to shoot down the Malaysian Boeing-777 in the east of Ukraine.