45 Civilians Killed, 216 Wounded Since Start of 2017: OSCE SMM; 1 Ukrainian Soldier KIA and 7 WIA

One Ukrainian soldier was killed and 7 wounded in battle in the previous reporting period, Liga.net reported, citing the Anti-Terrorist Operation [ATO] dispatch.

There were no casualties reported during today, the ATO evening dispatch noted.

There were 52 attacks by Russia-backed forces on Ukrainian positions. The Maritime line received the brunt of the attacks with 22 recorded. Once again the residential area of the town of Olginka was attacked; two homes were damaged and several facilities.

Chermalyk was attacked with 120-mm and Vodyanoye with 82-mm. Grenade-launchers and small arms were fired on Talakovka, Lebedinskoye, Gnutovo, Beryozovoye and Pavlopol.  Anti-aircraft weapons, armed BMPs and snipers were deployed.

On the Donetsk line, Peski, Avdeyevka and Neveslskoye were attacked with infantry weapons. Then Avdeyevka and the Svetlodarsk Bulge area were attacked, with 82-mm and 120-mm mortars, a BMP, grenade-launchers and small arms. 

On the Lugansk line, near Krymskoye, Novoaleksandrovka and Schastye, 82-mm mortars were used; grenade-launchers were fired on Stanitsa Luganskaya, Troitskoye and Lobachev.

OSCE confirmed the death of a woman and her son yesterday in the Petrovsky District of Donetsk.

According to Liga.net, since the start of this year, 45 civilians have been killed in the Donbass and 216 wounded, Alexander Hug, deputy head of the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission reported at a press conference today, June 14. Hug said this was 110% more than the analogous period for last year. He said shelling continues at the line of contact in a failure to observe the Minsk agreement.

According to the UN, since the start of war, about 24,000 people have been wounded and 1.6 million displaced, Liga.net reported. More than 10,000 people have been killed; of these, 2,777 were civilians.

The UN human rights mission in Ukraine documented 36 deaths and 157 injuries among civilians from February 16 through May 15 of this year. They said this was 48% higher than the previous reporting period of November 16, 2016 through Februaty 15, 2017.

At an army meeting today, President Petro Poroshenko said that more than 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers who had fought in the ATO zone had been treated in the Defense Ministry’s hospitals; 86,000 ATO soldiers were seen by doctors, Liga.net reported. Another 3,700 officers were given psychiatric rehabilitation in sanatorias.

He said 38 medics had been killed performing their duties on the battlefield since the start of the war in 2014. Another 200 were wounded. Poroshenko also said 248 medics were given state awards.

In response to a proposal by Oleksandr Turchynov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council to end the Anti-Terrorist Operation and declare martial law, Poroshenko also said he had no intention of ending the ATO. He also said he had prepared a plan for re-integration of the occupied regions of the Donbass which would be presented as a draft law.

Turchynov had said that the ATO was not sufficient to defend Ukraine from Russia’s hybrid war, and Ukraine should formally declare war against Russia. He said this would not cancel the Minsk agreement, but create the conditions for it to be implemented.

— Catherine A. Fitzpatrick

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