You're reading: Ombudsperson denies militants fired on bus with children in Donetsk region

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Valeria Lutkovska has denied reports of orphans being killed or injured during the shelling of a bus carrying them in Donetsk region on July 28.

“All of the children who left Donetsk arrived unharmed in the town of
Mariupol together with their teachers,” she said at a press conference
in Kyiv on July 29, adding that explosions had indeed been heard near
the bus, but no one opened fire deliberately on the bus.

Earlier, the head of the Information Resistance group, Dmytro
Tymchuk, said: “Yesterday, at a section of the Donetsk-Volnovakha
highway, DPR militants shot a minibus with children who were being
evacuated from orphanages in the Donbas… One child was killed. About
ten children sustained various injuries.”

He said that by prior agreement with the leadership of the
self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic minibuses transporting about
60 children left Donetsk for Mariupol.

The Health Ministry said that this case did not involve children
whose transportation was carried out under the supervision of the
ministry.