- © Photo: RIA Novosti/Maks Vetrov
Russia’s foreign ministry on Monday warned that towns in eastern Ukraine encircled by Ukrainian troops were facing a humanitarian disaster with shortages of medicine and food. “A humanitarian disaster is brewing in the encircled towns – there is already a lack of medicine and there are starting to be disruptions of food supplies,” the ministry said in a statement.
Kiev conceals deaths in Odessa fire, 116 killed – Ukrainian lawmaker
The interim Ukrainian authorities are hiding from the public the true death toll in Friday’s tragedy in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, which actually claimed 116 lives, a member of the Odessa regional council told RIA Novosti Monday. “According to our data, there were 116 people killed in the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. Killed, not just “dead”. “We don’t use the word “burned” or “suffocated”, because autopsies are not being performed, since the people have bullet wounds to the head,” Vadim Savenko said.
Most of those who died in the House of Trade Unions had burns on their heads and forearms, he added.
“It means that the people had been burned by combustible mixtures, so that it would be impossible to identify the bodies,” he said, adding that he obtained the information from anti-Kiev activists, “people who were inside the House of Trade Unions.”
The interim Kiev authorities have covered up the scale of the tragedy so that the world community wouldn’t know that a punitive operation against pro-federalization activists had been carried out in Odessa, the lawmaker said.
Ukrainian Mi-24 attack helicopter shot down near Slavyansk – defense ministry
A Ukrainian army Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter was shot down on Monday near the eastern city of Slavyansk where armed clashes between regular troops and pro-federalization protesters are underway, the defense ministry said.
“Today, May 5, about 14:30 local time, a Ukrainian Mi-24 military helicopter was shot down during a combat patrol mission near Slavyansk,” the ministry said in statement. According to the statement, the gunship crashed into a river, but the crew survived and were transported to a nearby military camp.
The ministry said the attackers used a heavy machine gun to down the aircraft. Slavyansk has remained a hotspot of clashes between pro-federalization protesters and government troops in Ukraine’s restive southeast.
According to recent reports by protesters, ten people were killed in a military attack on a roadblock near Slavyansk. Last Friday, self-defense forces managed to down three helicopters as troops supporting the coup-imposed government in Kiev intensified their punitive operations in southeastern Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Kiev to immediately halt the crackdown, saying it was a breach of its responsibilities under the April 17 Geneva accords providing for the de-escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and has jeopardized the implementation of the agreement.