“Our Su-25 surprisingly appeared in the sky above the Artemivsk-Debaltseve highway and attacked a convoy of the Ukrainian army, which was heading with reinforcements to the troops surrounded in Debaltseve,” the spokesperson told RIA Novosti, adding that no information about possible casualties is yet available.
The Luhansk forces acquired the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Sukhoi Su-25 jet in July 2014 after shooting it down and forcing it to land on their territory.
On Tuesday, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe called for a temporary truce in Debaltseve to allow for the urgent evacuation of civilians, as well as the immediate resumption of reconciliation talks.
The armed conflict has raged in eastern Ukraine since April last year, when Kiev launched a military operation against the region’s independence supporters who opposed Ukraine’s new post-coup government. More than 5,300 people have been killed and 12,200 have been wounded in the conflict, according to the latest UN estimates.
