The scene of the attack
A dawn attack on a checkpoint in eastern Ukraine has left at least 14
soldiers dead, in the worst loss of life for government forces to date.
Heavily armed militants attacked the checkpoint in the Volnovakha
area, in one of four attacks reported overnight in eastern Ukraine.
It is unclear who attacked the checkpoint, with one Ukrainian officer telling the BBC it was not separatists.
The attacks come just three days before Ukraine's presidential election.
Ukraine's interim Prime Minister, Arseny Yatseniuk, has
called for an emergency session of the UN Security Council, saying he
has evidence of Russian involvement in the violence.
Mark Lowen at the scene: "This is a huge blow for the Ukrainian army"
Russia appears to be withdrawing troops from its border with
Ukraine, easing fears of a military intervention like in Crimea in
March.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a
tweet that Russian troop activity near the Ukraine border might suggest that some Russian forces were preparing to pull back.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops near the
border to withdraw to their bases earlier this week. Correspondents say
removing the troops - estimated to number 40,000 - could help
de-escalate the Ukraine crisis.
Russian TV aired video it said showed the military leaving the Ukrainian border
Ukrainians go to the polls on Sunday to choose a new president
but voting in Donetsk and Luhansk has been seriously disrupted by the
insurgency there.
The election was called after the last elected President,
Viktor Yanukovych, was deposed in February amid mass protests against
his pro-Russian policies.
Charred vehicles
Photographs taken by an Associated Press news agency crew show
bodies lying in a field or inside a car outside the village of
Blahodatne, which is near the town of Volnovakha.
Three charred armoured infantry vehicles, their turrets blown
away by powerful explosions, and several burned lorries could also be
seen.
The aftermath of the attack near Volnovakha
The aftermath of the attack near Volnovakha
A pro-Russian gunman shows off weapons reportedly seized from the Ukrainian soldiers during the attack
Residents told AP the attackers had used an armoured bank lorry
which the unsuspecting Ukrainian soldiers had waved through the
checkpoint. The attackers then reportedly shot down the soldiers at
point-blank range.
BBC journalists who reached the scene were not allowed to
film by Ukrainian soldiers. The BBC's Olga Ivshina found 27 wounded
survivors at the central hospital in Volnovakha.
Local people said fighting had erupted at 05:00 local time
(02:00 GMT). They said they had heard explosions and gunfire, and some
spoke of seeing many wounded later.
The defence ministry blamed the latest attack on "terrorists"
- the term commonly used by Ukrainian officials for armed pro-Russian
separatists in Donetsk and the neighbouring Luhansk region.
Rebel claim
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an army major who spoke to
the survivors of the attack told our correspondent he was sure that the
attackers were not Donetsk separatists but "mercenaries".
Donetsk rebel leader Pavel Gubarev went to deny that separatist forces had attacked the soldiers.
However, a self-styled rebel commander in a nearby town,
Horlivka, told AP that his forces had carried out the assault and had
seized weapons.
"We destroyed a checkpoint of the fascist Ukrainian army
deployed on the land of the Donetsk Republic,'' said the commander, who
wore a balaclava and identified himself by his nom de guerre, Bess
("demon" in Russian).
A woman looking at her ruined house near Sloviansk,
Separatists have been skirmishing with security forces in
Donetsk for weeks but this is the deadliest attack on soldiers to date.
Ukrainian security chief Andriy Parubiy said four attacks had
taken place overnight, three of them repelled with loss of life and one
- in the Luhansk region - was still going on.
In another development, residents of a village near
Sloviansk, a town in Donetsk often seen as the separatists' stronghold,
complained of shelling that appeared to come from government positions.
"Why they are hitting us?'' asked Zinaida Patskan, 80, outside her ruined house in Semenovka. "We are civilians!"
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