Many dead in attack on refugee convoy in east Ukraine

Many people have been killed in rocket and mortar attacks on vehicles transporting refugees from Ukraine’s eastern region of Lugansk.

Ukraine’s National Security Council said a refugee convoy travelling between the towns of Khryashchuvate and Novosvitlivka was hit by rockets which it said were fired by pro-Russia forces.

“Many people were killed, among them women and children,” Colonel Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian National Security Council spokesman, said on Monday.

Pro-Russian forces rejected any role in the attacks, saying Ukraine’s forces attacked the convoy. The pro-Russians and Ukrainian forces were reportedly exchanging fire where the buses were travelling.

Ukraine’s eastern regions have witnessed deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since Kiev launched military operations there in mid-April.

Kiev and its Western allies accuse Russia of arming the forces in the east, an allegation Moscow has denied.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that no progress has been made during talks in Germany over the establishment of a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and the start of peace negotiations between warring parties.

The unrest in eastern Ukraine has so far claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people, according to figures by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Nearly 300,000 people have also been forced to flee their homes due to fierce fighting in the east, according to the UN.