Ukrainian troops open fire on their own troops in what is being described as the worst case of friendly fire in the war so far. Almost 100 soldiers were cut down in an artillery barrage.
According to Pravda “a company of Ukrainian security services that launched an attack on the terminal of the Donetsk airport came under artillery shelling.”
This may have been the result of what the report calls “errors or negligence” on the Ukrainian side.
“The Ukrainian troops launched a massive attack on the new airport terminal in Donetsk”, said RIA Novosti.
“A column of military equipment and about a hundred people went to the runway of the airport from the direction of the village of Peski. The local militia forces tried to halt the offensive, but all of a sudden, the Ukrainian side opened fire on their own advancing column”, according to the report. Adding that as a direct result “the Ukrainian troops destroyed a company of Ukrainian servicemen almost completely.”
Such errors are sometimes called “friendly fire incidents.”
A friendly fire incident is an attack by a military force on friendly forces while attempting to attack the enemy, either misidentifying the target as hostile, or due to errors or inaccuracy. Such attacks often cause injury or death.
The report noted that Donetsk militia leaders out of respect for the fallen troops conduct OSCE-mediated talks to “deliver the dead bodies to Kiev.”
Meanwhile the fierce fighting for the Donetsk Airport continues. Pro Russian militias maintain control over several buildings of the airport in a desperte bid to stop the advance of Ukrainian military forces…
The Ukrainian army has been accused of committing all sorts of gross human rights violations against civilians in violation of the Geneva Convention. Specifically violations of Articles 3, 4, 5, 7 and 11 of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of Article 3 of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of December 9, 1948.
See related report: War in Ukraine creates mass exodus of refugees fleeing into Russia https://groundreport.com/war-in-ukraine-creates-mass-exodus…/