Nov 21, 2014–The three videos below (English subtitles) show the aftermath of shelling of residential towns and cities in eastern Ukraine in recent days by Ukraine armed forces.
In the first video, local self-defense commander Eugene Ischenko in the town of Pervomaisk in the Luhansk Peoples Republic describes the shellings of apartment buildings and other residences on Nov. 19. The video captures disturbing images, including one image of a man killed by a shell. Ischenko explains that people are fleeing the town and says this is evidently the goal of the attacks. He also explains it is difficult in such circumstances for authorities to restore water, electricity and natural gas supply to residences and neighbourhoods that are targetted, an added reason forcing people to flee.
“All those high officials in Kiev sit there and do nothing. Do nothing to bring peace. Instead, they are facilitating that children of the Southeast are forced to hide in basements,” says Ischenko angrily, referring to the speech by Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko last month in the city of Odessa where he pledged to continue the war in the east, saying, “Our children will go to schools while their children will sit in basements.”
“They announce it [children in basements] to the whole world!” says Ischenko. “They should be ashamed, those leaders of other countries who shake hands and hug with Poroshenko.”
At the six-minute mark, an older resident voices anti-Jewish prejudice, blaming “Jews” in the Ukraine government for the shellings and bombings the town is enduring.
A second video is also shot in Pervomaisk. In this case, it shows the aftermath of the shelling of the local maternity hospital that occurrred on November 15. “See what the Ukrainian army is fighting? [A baby in an incubator is shown.] We’ll show the whole world this video,” says the man behind the camera.
A third video shows the aftermath of shelling by GRAD rockets in a district of Donetsk city on Nov. 18. Like the first video, this one interviews the residents of the neighbourhood that was struck. Here, too, the shelling has cut natural gas and electricity supply. A woman resident speaks with evident experience of enduring GRAD rockets. “Yesterday we got another present from our dear president [a rocket shell]. Thank, you, Mr. President… I think it’s a new shell type. Last time, we got a GRAD-2. The shell is like this: [gestures to show size of shell fragments]. But look at this huge crater now [points to the crater in the ground].”
