Kyiv Says Rebels Shoot Down Army Transport Plane
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says 49 Ukrainian soldiers were killed overnight when pro-Russian separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region shot down an army transport plane using antiaircraft weapons and heavy machine guns.
The ministry said early on June 14 that the IL-76 transport plane was shot down while attempting to land at the Luhansk airport.
The attack came just hours after Washington said it could confirm Kyiv’s claims that Russia has been sending heavy military equipment to pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine — including tanks and rocket launchers.
“We assess that separatists in eastern Ukraine have acquired heavy weapons and military equipment from Russia, including Russian tanks and multiple rocket launchers,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.
She said a convoy of three T-64 tanks, several MB-21, “or Grad” multiple rocket launchers, and other military vehicles had crossed from Russia into eastern Ukraine “near the Ukrainian town of Snizhne” during the last three days — moving through several towns, including Snizhne, Torez, and Makiyivka.
Harf said: “Russia will claim these tanks were taken from Ukrainian forces, but no Ukrainian tank units have been operating in that area. We are confident that these tanks came from Russia.”
She also said Washington has “information that Russia has accumulated multiple rocket launchers at this same deployment site in southwest Russia, and these rocket launchers also recently departed”
She said internet video has shown what Washington believes to be “these same rocket launchers traveling through Luhansk.”
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said earlier on June 13 that if the reported deployment was confirmed, it would mark a “serious escalation” of the crisis.
He urged Russia “to complete the withdrawal of its military forces on the border with Ukraine, to stop the flow of weapons and fighters across the border, and to exercise its influence among armed separatist to lay down their weapons and renounce violence.”
Rasmussen’s remarks came after Kyiv accused Russia of allowing pro-Russian separatists who are fighting Ukrainian government forces to transport three tanks and other military vehicles across the border into eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko told Russian President Vladimir Putin in their first official telephone conversation on June 12 that the situation was “unacceptable.”
Denis Pushilin, a pro-Russia separatist leader in Donetsk, told Russian state television on June 13 that separatist had obtained tanks but it was “improper to ask” where they had gotten them.
Pushilin said the tanks were “in Donetsk and are the minimum that we have to defend the city.”
The developments come as the Ukrainian government continues a military operation to reclaim territory from pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on June 13 that government troops had regained control from separatists of the southeastern port city of Mariupol.
Avakov said government forces also won back control of a 120-kilometer stretch of the border with Russia that had fallen to the rebels.
Meanwhile, Putin’s spokesman said the Russian president has ordered Russia’s Foreign Ministry to issue a formal complaint with Kyiv after a Ukrainian armored vehicle was found on Russian territory, close to the border with Ukraine’s Luhansk region.
Russian border guards said the Ukrainian armored personnel carrier was found about 150 meters within Russian territory.