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Human rights activists report casualties in Ukraine's Kramatorsk

According to civil activists, several people died when a military airdrome was seized by Ukrainian forces

© EPA/ANASTASIA VLASOVA

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Fighter jet shot down near Ukraine’s city of Kramatorsk, witnesses say

KIEV, April 15. /ITAR-TASS/. There are reports that several people have died in Kramatorsk, where a military airdrome was seized by Ukrainian forces, Maxim Shevchenko, head of the group on monitoring of human rights in Ukraine under the Presidential Council on Civil Society and Human Rights, reported citing local human rights activists.

“I contacted civil activists, human rights activists in Kramatorsk. They say that the military airdrome in the city was seized by Ukrainian forces, and there are casualties. Shots are fired in Kramatorsk,” Shevchenko told ITAR-TASS in a telephone interview.

Shevchenko also said that a human rights center has been established in Donetsk. The center will monitor the human rights situation in the Donetsk Oblast. “Moreover, we keep in touch with civil activists in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk,” he added.

Right Sector's role in airport's seizure

Soldiers of the Right Sector far-right ultranationalist Ukrainian organization and others, possibly foreign mercenaries, took part in the storm of the airport in the city of Kramatorsk in east Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, representatives of the city’s self-defense units said Tuesday.

“The attackers were clad in uniforms of Right Sector fighters, some attackers were speaking foreign languages. They tried not to communicate with local residents, most likely not to give themselves away. We believe they are mercenaries,” an activist of Kramatorsk self-defense forces said.

The Kramatorsk airport went under control of Ukrainian military earlier on Tuesday but the city is still controlled by local self-defense units.

“We have really been driven out of the airport, but the city is under our control. We won’t let anyone in,” a member of Kramatorsk self-defense forces said, emphasizing that the forces are ready to fight armored vehicles.

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