DONETSK, August 3 (RIA Novosti) - Television broadcast was interrupted in eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk due to Ukrainian army’s artillery shelling of the city, a representative from Donetsk People’s Republic’s television and radio committee told RIA Novosti.
“Ukrainian aviation carried out an artillery assault against the power station in Mandrykyne [southern suburb of Donetsk.] The power station was severely damaged, another 220 stations went down shortly after. One of them powered TV aerial in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. As a result, TV broadcast stopped in Donetsk, as well as the broadcast of 70 percent of radio stations,” the committee’s representative told RIA Novosti.
On Saturday, at least three people were killed in artillery shelling in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. The shells hit a school and a local power station.
According to the committee’s representative, “this was obviously not a random shelling, but there is a targeted destruction of key positions, as it was previously done in Luhansk.” The committee’s representative added that they foresaw such development of the events and arranged two reserve radio transmitting stations.
In mid-July, Donetsk authorities ordered to halt the broadcast of Ukrainian TV channels replacing them with Russian ones.
At the moment, Radio Republic, official radio station of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, is broadcasting in the region. While TV broadcast is unavailable, but the repair work is underway.
Ukraine’s government troops have used ballistic missiles against independence supporters in the country’s east.
CNN reported citing US officials earlier this week that Ukraine’s government troops used short-range ballistic missiles in the east. The weapons have a range of about 50 miles and pack warheads of up to 1,000 pounds.
