Militia say Ukraine’s Grad, Uragan rockets targeted at Kiev-controlled Volnovakha

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. The reconnaissance of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has spotted multiple rocket launchers at the positions of Kiev-controlled forces, the Donetsk Republic’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Eduard Basurin, has said.

"The Donetsk Republic’s reconnaissance has identified the deployment of Grad and Uragan rocket launchers in the village of Peredovoye," the Donetsk News Agency quotes Basurin as saying. "It is noteworthy that the launchers are targeted at the city of Volnovakha."

According to the intelligence available to the Donetsk republic, Ukrainian forces have been using hospitals and other social facilities in Volnovakha and Kurakhovo for military purposes.

"The Donetsk Republic’s military intelligence continues to identify ever more instances of weapons, combat vehicles and personnel of the Ukrainian army and national guards being stationed on the premises of hospitals and other social facilities. There are confirmations Ukrainian forces use the buildings of the city hospital in the city of Kurakhovo and the central district hospital in the city of Volnovakha, which upsets the operation of medical and other social institutions," he said.

Basurin provided upgraded statistics showing the results of Donetsk republic’s shellings by Ukrainian forces over the past 24 hours.

"The Ukrainian army used prohibited artillery in the area of the airport, and also near the Kievsky and Kuibyshevsky districts of the city of Donetsk - 60 shells were fired with 122 mm and 152 artillery pieces," he said. "In the area of Vasilievka and Gorlovka there were registered 31 shots fired by tanks and 54 others fired by 120 mm and 82 mm mortars."

Earlier, the self-proclaimed republic’s defense ministry confirmed that an explosion of a large caliber shell in Donetsk killed a local resident.