Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has began an investigation of the road accident in Donetsk Oblast that killed at least 12 Ukrainian servicemen.
A truck and a bus, both carrying the servicemen of the National Guard of Ukraine, hit each other on late night of Jan. 5. Twelve soldiers died in an accident, while 21 were injured.
See photo gallery from the site of the accident.
Several Ukrainian publications reported that another soldier died in a hospital, rising the casualties number to 13. It was not yet confirmed by official sources. According to Interfax news agency, one serviceman has a fractured spine.
The investigation considers two versions of what caused the accident – violation of driving rules, or a vehicle malfunction, according to the Prosecutor General Vitaliy Yarema’s report to President Petro Poroshenko. Before that, it was said that bad weather conditions could cause the crash. The snow covered the road. The driver of the truck was examined and found sober.
The accident occurred on the road between Sloviansk and Artiomovsk. The soldiers were being delivered to their assigned place of service within the troops rotation process.
Fourteen of the most severely injured servicemen were delivered to the hospital in Kharkiv. Seven less injured soldiers are in Artiomovsk but will be taken to Kharkiv soon, according to the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) spokesman Andriy Lysenko.
Interior Affairs Ministry, to which the National Guard subordinates, has published the names and photos of the 12 killed soldiers.
Alik, 22, a serviceman of the same department of the National Guard, who didn’t reveal his last name for a wish of confidentiality, said at least two of his friends were heavily wounded.
“We don’t even know who (of the people we know) was killed, because here we all know each other by (assigned) call signs. The names and surnames don’t tell us anything,” he said, adding that his comrades say that the sight of the destroyed bus was the worst thing they’ve ever seen.
The photos of the crash site show a white bus, its front side destroyed, laying in a pit at the roadside, snow covering all around it. The truck appears to be almost unharmed, and it is unclear if any of the soldiers in it were injured.
On Jan. 6, next day after the crash, the government has banned public bus services in the ATO zone in Ukraine’s east because of “a threat to the health and life of passengers.” It was not said if the ban was related to the crash.
Kyiv Post photo journalist Anastasia Vlasova contributed to this story.
