UNITED NATIONS, January 23. /TASS/. The United Nations Security Council in a statement condemned the shelling of a public transport stop in Donetsk and underlined the need to conduct an objective investigation.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the killing of as many as 15 and injuring of more than 20 civilians, among them women and children, as a result of shelling of a public transport stop," the council said in a statement made on the Russian initiative for the press.
It "underlined the need to conduct an objective investigation and bring perpetrators of this reprehensible act to justice."
The members of the Security Council expressed their deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to those injured.
In their press statement, the Council members also underlined the need for the "full implementation" of the Minsk protocol and welcomed the joint statement issued by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, the Russian Federation and Ukraine in Berlin on January 21 amid attempts to achieve peace.
As was reported earlier a source at the UN headquarters told TASS that Russia had proposed the United Nations Security Council to make a statement for the press, condemning the shelling of a trolleybus stop in Donetsk. A decision on Russia’s proposal was expected to be taken within an hour, the source said.
Transport stop shelling in Donetsk
A public transport stop at Kuprin Street in Donetsk was shelled on Thursday morning at about 08:30. According to preliminary information, the mortar fire was opened from a small bus. A trolleybus with passengers and a car caught fire. An OSCE report on the incident said the shell was fired from a mortar or an artillery gun in the northwest.
Earlier, UN official spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters: "That trolleybus attack clearly appears to us as being a targeted attack against civilians.” Such an attack "constitutes a grievous violation of international humanitarian law and must be investigated," he added.
The spokesman also said that many civilian had been killed in Gorlovka, which was hit by massive air strikes in the past few days.
Russia demanded to immediately investigate the incident, blaming Ukrainian forces for it. “We view the incident as a crime against humanity, a gross provocation aimed at undermining efforts for peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, including some progress achieved as a result of the just-concluded Normandic-format meeting of the the Russian, German, Ukrainian and French foreign ministers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.