KIEV, May 12 (RIA Novosti) – At least 50 people have died and 245 have been injured in Ukraine’s southeastern Donetsk region since the beginning of a violent standoff between federalists and pro-regime forces on March 13, officials said Monday.
“Forty-nine people have died in the Donetsk region since the start of massive clashes in the region, including the ‘anti-terrorist’ operation,” a statement by the Donetsk regional administration’s press office said, adding 245 people had been admitted to clinics with gunshot wounds.
According to the statement, a further 100 people have been admitted to local hospitals over the same period, with 65 inpatients still currently being treated in clinics.
Violent clashes between supporters and opponents of the new Kiev authorities erupted in the city of Donetsk on March 13 after a period of mass anti-coup rallies, injuring 26 demonstrators.
The city of Slaviansk in the region’s north has seen a string of running battles, with several people killed in a skirmish at a federalist-manned checkpoint that was assaulted on April 20 by a group of gunmen believed to be affiliated with the radical Right Sector movement.
In the most recent episode, troops of the Ukrainian National Guard murdered two people in Krasnoarmiisk, a city with a population of some 70,000, during an independence referendum on Sunday.
According to the organizing committee, gunmen from the Dnepr squadron wielding AK-47 assault rifles shut down the city hall and all polling stations in the city.
On Sunday, Serhiy Pashynsky, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, said the “anti-terror operation” in Donetsk’s flashpoint cities of Kramatorsk, Slaviansk and Krasny Liman had entered a “final phase.” He said Ukrainian troops had “wiped out a lot of separatists," without specifying a number.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the regime in Kiev of unleashing troops and far-right radicals against Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
