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UN Security Council condemns bus shelling near Donetsk, demands investigations

Apart from that, the Security Council called on the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine to strictly obey the Minsk agreements

UNITED NATIONS, January 14. /TASS/. The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday condemned the selling of a passenger bus near east Ukraine’s Donetsk and demanded an impartial investigation to bring those responsible to justice.

In its statement for the press, the United Nations Security Council condemned the killing of 11 civilians, including women and children in the selling of a commuter bus in Volvovakh, Donetsk region on January 13, 2015. It also expressed condolences to the families of those killed in the incident.

Apart from that, the Security Council called on the parties to the conflict in eastern Ukraine to strictly obey the Minsk agreements.

A well-informed source at the United Nations headquarters told TASS the statement had been initiated by the Lithuanian delegation.

Earlier, Donetsk Region police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin claimed on his Facebook page that Donetsk’s militias had allegedly delivered an artillery strike on a roadblock of Ukrainian law enforcers from the side of the inhabited locality of Dokuchayevsk “hitting a bus with civilians.” He said 10 people had died and 13 had been wounded and hospitalized.

Denis Pushilin, the representative of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic /DPR/ in the Contact Group on the settlement of the crisis in Ukraine, said the DPR authorities could not either confirm or refute this information. “We have no possibility because the territory is controlled by Ukraine,” the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying. He said the incident was a provocation.

Meanwhile, DPR People’s Council /parliament/ speaker Andrey Purgin said DPR militias could not shell a bus near Volnovakha “deep on Ukrainian territory.” The DPR Defence Ministry also denied that the militia was involved in the incident.

Russian Foreign ministry’s envoy for human rights, democracy and the supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov said the shelling of the passenger bus in eastern Ukraine undermined efforts to reach a peace settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. “The selling of a passenger bus near Donetsk causes resentment. It is another crime committed by the Ukrainian military,” he said. “It undermines peace settlement efforts. Kiev continues to blatantly violate human rights.”

Moscow “demands an impartial investigation of this crime, including by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe /OSCE/ and punishment of those responsible,” he said. “The international community must resolutely demand this!”.