Pro-Russian rebels on Monday reportedly targeted a convoy of cars carrying refugees who were fleeing the war-torn eastern Ukraine. The attack, carried out with an alleged artillery strike, killed dozens of people, some of whom were women and children, the Ukrainian military officials said. Leaders of the pro-Russian rebel force denied the alleged attacked.
The attack was said to have been carried out with rocket systems and various heavy weapons supplied by Russia.
"The rebels were expecting the convoy and destroyed it entirely," Andriv Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said.
"We haven't been able to count the number of victims ... dozens [were killed]," Lysenko added.
The convoy carrying refugees was fleeing an area where intense fighting happened between the government forces and the separatists. A rocket fire, allegedly carried out by a rebel, hit the convoy near the area of Khryashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka.
"The force of the blow on the convoy was so strong that people were burned alive in the vehicles - they weren't able to get themselves out," Anatoly Proshin, a Ukrainian military spokesman, told Ukrainian news channel 112.
The rebel group meanwhile denied any involvement to the alleged attack.
Andrei Purgin, leader of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, said in a news report by Aljazeera that the rebels did not have the military capability to launch Grad rockets to the area where the alleged attack happened.
Purgin also added that government forces have been conducting an assault in the said area with Grad rockets and airstrikes.
"The Ukrainians themselves have bombed the road constantly with airplanes and Grads. It seems they've now killed more civilians like they've been doing for months now. We don't have the ability to send Grads into that territory," Purgin said, in a report by Reuters.
"As far as I understand, there was no column of refugees in Luhansk region that fell under fire." Alexander Zakharchenko, another leader of the separatist group from Donetsk said in a report by Aljazeera.
"We ... did not shoot any convoys with Grads and moreover we did not shoot with any Grads from Russia," Zakharchenko added.
