Today near Donetsk, Ukrainian forces brought down fire on a group of journalists, including a VGTRK film crew. They attacked with 120-mm mortars. The Russian Investigative Committee has already opened a criminal case on the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare.
Alexei Baranov is reporting from Donetsk.
It was the last point on the way of the DPR People’s Militia on that day. They had to record the result of the previous night's shelling by Ukrainian forces on the western outskirts of Donetsk in the village of Aleksandrovka.
The first explosion, which, judging by the sound, was a 120-mm shell, was just 160 feet from Donetsk servicemembers and local and foreign journalists, among them a Vesti film crew.
"Get down! Get down!"
Fortunately, the second bomb did not explode. American journalist Patrick Lancaster was among those who came under shelling by Ukrainian forces. Patrick
Lancaster, independent journalist, the USA: "Ukrainians know that this is a civilian village, but they shell it daily anyway. And the people who live there do not understand why the Ukrainians shell peaceful civilians every day. Every morning, day and night".
We could get out from under the fire and film the result of the night shelling only half an hour later. As a man from the village of Aleksandrovka says, shells don't cease to explode here.
"Every single day. They shoot and shoot. They killed my dog and wounded me in my own yard".
Ukrainian forces don't stop the shelling, which the journalists came under, despite the OSCE mission in the region. Today, as many as 16 Donbass residential areas were attacked. Even in the center of Donetsk, you can often hear shells burst.
Alexei Baranov, Alexander Malyshev, Nikita Korunov, Andrei Rudenko, and Oleg Bondarenko for Vesti from the Donetsk People's Republic.
