DONETSK, July 15. /ITAR-TASS/. The military attaches of seven foreign countries, including Ukraine, have refused to travel to the town of Donetsk located in Russia’s southern Rostov region on the border with Ukraine. The town came under fire from Ukraine’s territory on Sunday, July 13, Sergei Ryzhkov, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry department for implementation of contracts, told journalists on Tuesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry has sent invitations to representatives of 18 countries. However, only eleven military attaches from China, Spain, the United States, Finland, Norway, Italy, Denmark, India, Germany, Sweden and France accepted the invitation and set out on a trip to the Russian-Ukrainian border on Tuesday.

Military representatives of Ukraine, Belgium, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria could not go for various reasons.

Ryzhkov said that several military attaches could not take part in the trip because the notice had been too short. Some attaches turned out to be away on their vacation.

“However, the attaches of Ukraine, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands replied with categorical refusal,” Ryzhkov stressed.

He added that the Russian Defense Ministry had invited the military attaches to visit the Russian-Ukrainian border because Russia could not but be concerned with the latest developments there.

“The purpose of the trip is to get acquainted with the situation. We also hope that our colleagues will inform their governments of what they are going to see,” Ryzhkov explained.

Several shells fired from the territory of Ukraine fell on the Russian territory in the border town of Donetsk on July 13. The city prosecutor, Dmitry Aristarkhov, said that one man had died and two women had been injured. The Russian Investigation Committee assumes that unidentified servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, members of Ukraine’s National Guard or the Right Sector fighters intentionally fired shells against the Russian territory. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied that the Russian territory had been shelled from Ukraine. Aristarkhov said that investigators would establish which of the sides in the Ukraine conflict had launched the shells.