WUNRN
UKRAINE - Much attention has been focused on the enormous
tragedy of the missile attacked, crashed Malaysia Airlines plane in Ukraine.
But, there is widespread violence in many parts of opposition held Ukraine -
Women and children have been killed, injured, homes destroyed, dreams of
stable lives disrupted, even destroyed in this conflict in Ukraine. For these
Ukranian women in the "war zone," fear is everywhere, safety is
speculative, peace is elusive, pain is pervasive.....
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Women in Lugansk after an artillery attack on July 18, 2014. (RIA Novosti / Valeriy Melnikov)
OSCE -Organization for Security
& Co-Operation in Europe .....There was shelling of Luhansk city on
18 and 19 July. On 19 July, the OSCE Mission went to a city-centre location,
where they observed a large crater beside a bus stop. Shattered windows and
shrapnel fragments in the walls of two nearby six-storey buildings were seen,
and blood and body parts along the pavement and road. The same day, the SMM
observed five houses reduced to rubble on the outskirts of the city......
The OSCE Mission received casualty figures from two sources. The head of the local emergency services department in Luhansk city informed that on 19 July that 20 people had been killed and 150 injured in Luhansk city on 17 and 18 July. The head of the city morgue informed the SMM on 19 July that 29 people had been killed on 18 and 19 July. He said five of the victims were women, and all but one were civilians. At the morgue, the SMM saw a man and a woman carrying a small, child-sized coffin.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UKRAINE - CITY OF LUGANSK -
SHELLING, ATTACKS, CIVILIAN CASUALTIES - WOMEN & CHILDREN
July
18, 2014 - At
least 15 have been killed and 53 wounded as the city of Lugansk has come under
shelling attack. The city’s center and civilian areas have been targeted
leaving areas in ruins.
"Today intense bombardment
of Lugansk has continued. Shells are falling in almost all districts of the
city,” the administration said in a statement.
Later on Friday, the Health Ministry of the Lugansk People’s
Republic confirmed that 15 people were killed in the shelling and another 53
were injured.
The statement posted on the
administration’s website said shells targeted the city center, major streets,
the railway station and a market.
Lugansk residents reported a shell falling close to a church,
killing one person. They said the city was attacked by Ukrainian army’s rockets
fired from a military jet.
"Self-defense
forces fired at [the aircraft] from manpads [man-portable air defence systems],
but we don’t know if they hit it or not,” some locals were cited as saying
by ITAR-TASS.
The Lisichansk Oil Refinery, property of the Russian oil
company Rosneft - recently sanctioned by the US - has also been attacked and
set on fire.
The opposition claims the refinery was targeted by Ukrainian
army from Grad multiple rocket launcher system.
Locals reports that the refinery, targeted in the early hours
of Friday, is still ablaze.
The artillery shelling that started
overnight has left “85 percent of Lugansk” without
electricity. Residents have no tap water as local pumping stations were shut
down.
It is likely that electrify will only be restored when shelling
stops, City Hall said. Due to continuing shelling, repairmen can’t reach the
station where power was disrupted.
Local media reports also say that there is no mobile connection,
internet or television.
So far Kiev’s forces have failed to enter Lugansk, but constant shelling of living quarters claim the lives of civilians on a daily basis.
The
Lugansk city administration has issued a statement estimating the number of
killed and injured “recently.” While the statement points
out that the data does not include the July 18 shelling, it does not specify
the dates on which the statistics were collected.
According to the statement, 44 people have been killed,
including one child, and 215 wounded, including four children.
Fighting continues to the north of the city, in the village of
Metallist, 10km from Lugansk, and in the west, in Yubileynoye settlement.
According to ITAR-TASS, self-defense forces claim they have
managed to push back Kiev troops in Metallist.
One of the shells has almost hit a local administration headquarters, falling some 200 meters from it, Russian LifeNews channel reported. It also said that another shell struck a civilian house which was completely destroyed. The owner was hospitalized