12 bus passengers killed by insurgent artillery strike in Donetsk region

Multiple civilian fatalities in militant attack near Volnovakha

At about 14:30 on 13 January artillery fire from Kremlin-backed insurgents in east Ukraine struck a civilian bus killing 11 passengers, according to Donetsk district police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin.

"Insurgents based in Dokuchaevo shelled a Ukrainian position in Volnovakha and struck a civilian bus. At the moment we have information about 10 fatalities and 13 wounded."

The conflict in east Ukraine has already claimed almost 5,000 lives, with approximately 1,400 fatalities since a nominal ceasefire was introduced in September 2014.  

UPDATE 1: Information posted to a 'Novorossiya' social media page this afternoon confirmed that insurgent forces had launched an attack on a Ukrainian checkpoint at exactly the time and place where the civilian bus was struck. As news of the civilian deaths emerged, the post was edited to remove confirmation of the insurgent attack.

The original post read:

Breaking news: 13.01.2015, 16:53 (NB: insurgents operate on Moscow time, meaning that this post appeared at 14:53 Ukrainian time)

Volnovakha

Information received: Ukrainian checkpoint destroyed at the exit of Volnovakha in the direction of Donetsk

UPDATE 2: The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's office has stated that insurgents fired 40 Grad rockets in the 13 January east Ukraine attack which resulted in the death of ten civilians on a passenger bus. Officials confirmed that the attack was being treated as an 'act of terror'.

UPDATE 3: Donetsk Administration reports 18 wounded. One of them has already arrived in Mariupol for treatment. Previously there was an information about 13 wounded as a result of terrorist attack.

UPDATE 4: The death toll in the suspected insurgent Grad rocket attack on a civilian passenger bus in east Ukraine has risen to 11 following the death of a women injured in the attack. Kremlin-backed insurgents are believed to have hit a bus near Volnovakha while attempting to strike a Ukrainian checkpoint. Donetsk Administration reports 17 wounded civilians currently receiving medical treatment.   

UPDATE 5: The death toll in the suspected insurgent Grad rocket attack on a civilian passenger bus in east Ukraine has risen to 12 following the death of a man injured in the attack.

Official statement of the MFA says: "The shelling was carried out from the town of Dokuchayevsk which is under control of the illegal armed groups. All facts point out that this horrible tragedy was not a coincidence. There are no positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the checkpoint. Thus, the terrorists fired at the civilians intentionally".

Free Donbas writes: "This shelling by Russian army/terrorists was carried out in order to cause a return strike on Russian positions in the center of Dokuchayevsk and possibly cause civilIan casualties. Reporters of local and Russian TV channels were waiting in Dokuchayevsk to film Ukrainian return strike, Ukraine army rep Bohdan Bondar said."

UPDATE 6: Ukrainians have launched an internet campaign ‘Je Suis Volnovakha' to raise awareness about the tragic deaths of 12 civilians in an insurgent Grad rocket attack on 13 January in east Ukraine. The tragedy occurred close to the Ukrainian city of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region when a passenger bus was struck by a rocket barrage in an apparent attempt by Kremlin-backed insurgents to destroy a nearby Ukrainian army checkpoint.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has condemned the atrocity and called on the international community to unite with Ukraine in the fight against terrorism. In an address to the Ukrainian nation following the attack, President Poroshenko stated that the European Parliament was poised to place the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics on the EU's terror blacklist later this week. 

Photo of the bus by Novostidn.     
http://uatoday.tv/news/10-bus-passengers-killed-by-insurgent-artillery-strike-in-donetsk-region-402496.html