The shells that hit a school sports ground in Donetsk on Nov. 5, killing two and wounding several people, were fired from a location northwest of the school, reports the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
OSCE couldn’t tell whether it was Ukrainian troops or the separatists opposing them who were located in the area the shells came from. The estimation of the direction is based on the crater analysis.
Pisky village, one of the hot spots of the ongoing fighting between Ukrainian army separatists, is located north-west of the school.
Several shells flew into the sports ground of school No. 63 in Donetsk around 3:30 p.m. of Nov. 5. According to OSCE, two children were killed and four children and an adult were seriously wounded. The deadly shelling is yet another violation of the shaky truce that the government signed with the separatists in Minsk in September in an attempt to silence an armed conflict that had been going on since April.
The Pomozhem charity fund of Rinat Akhmetov, whose member witnessed the shelling, said the two killed were an eighth-grade student and an 18-year-old graduate of the school. Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest billionaire, is a school No. 63 graduate.
On Nov. 5, he issued this statement after the tragedy: “A few hours ago, mortar shells have landed in my home settlement, near the school where I studied. Several teenagers were on a football pitch at that time. Two of them died and four were injured and taken into intensive care. Another terrible tragedy has happened! Innocent people, this time children, have suffered! First of all, I want to give my deepest compassion to the families of those who died. I want to tell the families of the injured that we will do everything to put their children back on their feet. I also wish to underline that we never leave anybody in trouble! My humanitarian centre will help all the people who suffered in this tragedy. Tell me, how many children must die, how many people must be killed and injured, how many tears must be shed to stop this war?! I call on everybody – cease the fire! Stop killing civilians! Stop killing our children!”
When an OSCE representative arrived to the site in the morning of Nov. 6, human remains were still seen lying at the sports ground.
On the territory of the school and in the nearby streets, the OSCE representative counted 1o craters left by the shells. His analysis indicates that at least four of the craters were caused by 120mm mortar shells and two others were the result of 122mm artillery rounds. All of them were fired from a location north-west of the football pitch and were the result of high-angle fire, in the OSCE assessment.
Kyiv Post staff writer Julia Kukoba contributed to this story.
