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As Ukraine Fighting Intensifies, Dental College Is Struck
As Ukraine Fighting Intensifies, Dental College Is Struck
(about 7 hours later)
DONETSK, Ukraine — As fighting between the Ukrainian Army and pro-Russian rebels intensified on Thursday, an artillery barrage crashed into a dental college here, killing one patient and blowing apart dental chairs and cracking walls adorned with charts of teeth.
DONETSK, Ukraine — An artillery barrage on Thursday that was apparently meant to hit a rebel headquarters building here smashed a nearby dental college instead, killing one patient. A grocery store and apartment buildings also were damaged.
The pediatric dental ward took a direct hit, but was empty at the time. The explosions, by all appearances the result of shelling aimed at the city from government positions outside, struck the clinic and nearby residential buildings in a central district of Donetsk around 10 a.m.
The episode highlighted the high risk of collateral damage and civilian casualties as the Ukrainian Army tries to defeat the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. In recent days, government forces have encircled Donetsk, a separatist stronghold, but have not yet tried to storm it with ground troops, opting instead to bombard rebel positions and gradually tighten the siege.
The barrage also blew apart the facade of a grocery store and knocked a brick balcony from an eighth-floor apartment. Inside the building, tweezers, drills, scalpels and other dental instruments lay scattered in dust and debris.
By all appearances the shells that struck the dental college came from government positions outside the city. They fell around 10 a.m. along a line running from the college, through a park, toward the rebel headquarters building in a central district of Donetsk.
Outside, Alexander Perikh sat groaning on a sidewalk, his head bandaged from recent dental surgery. He said he unplugged his intravenous tube and ran. “I don’t feel well at all,” he said.
The pediatric dental ward, empty at the time, took a direct hit. The shelling shattered dental chairs and cracked walls adorned with charts of teeth. Tweezers, drills, scalpels and other dental instruments lay scattered in the dust and debris.
Earlier, Ukrainian government artillery fire struck a hospital in the city of Slovyansk. Human Rights Watch published a report saying two medical workers had died from shelling in the war in eastern Ukraine. An emergency worker said one patient died and three were wounded in Thursday’s strike.
The dental college is in a wing of Central Clinical Hospital No. 1. Outside, Alexander Perikh sat groaning on a sidewalk, his head bandaged from recent dental surgery. He said he unplugged his intravenous tube and ran from the building when it was hit. “I don’t feel well at all,” he said
The artillery shells struck in a line running from the dental clinic into an apartment building and a park and toward a rebel-occupied police building that the pro-Russian military commander here, who goes by the name Igor Strelkov, or Igor the Shooter, uses as a headquarters. The last shell fell about 300 yards short of the separatist military headquarters.
Further along the line of explosions, a brick balcony was knocked from an eighth-floor apartment, and the facade of a grocery store was blown apart.
The strike that hit the dental college was the second effort by the Ukrainian military to blow up the rebel military headquarters. The college is in a wing of the city’s Central Clinical Hospital No. 1. On Friday, rockets that rained into the area killed a janitor who had been working in a courtyard near the headquarters building. Though initial reports said that volley also struck the headquarters building, separatists later said that was not the case.
The last shell in the barrage fell about 300 yards short of a rebel-occupied police building that the pro-Russian military commander here — known as Igor Strelkov, or Igor the Shooter — uses as a headquarters.
In separate incidents, three civilians died in shelling and five were wounded overnight, the Donetsk mayor’s office said in a statement Thursday. The day before, government forces bombed Donetsk from the air for the first time, leaving craters in a warehouse district and wounding two night watchmen.
The artillery fire on Thursday appeared to be the second attempt by the Ukrainian military to blow up the headquarters. Rockets rained on the area Friday, killing a janitor who was working in a nearby courtyard. Separatists said afterward that volley, too, had missed its mark.
As the Ukrainian government forces pressed this offensive, making gains daily, more alarms were raised this week in the West over about 20,000 Russian troops massing near the border. The American defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, said of a Russian incursion into Ukraine, “It’s a threat, it’s a possibility, absolutely.”
An emergency worker said one patient at the dental clinic died and three were wounded in Thursday’s strike. It was not the first time Ukrainian artillery fire had struck a medical facility: a hospital building was hit in Slovyansk as government troops retook that city from the rebels. Human Rights Watch published a report saying that two medical workers had died from shelling in the war in eastern Ukraine.
The Kremlin rejected claims that it was preparing to send its troops across the border. Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Western officials seemed to be trying to top one another with exaggerated claims.
Elsewhere in Donetsk, three civilians died in separate incidents of shelling overnight and five were wounded, the mayor’s office said Thursday in a statement. Government forces bombed Donetsk from the air for the first time on Wednesday, leaving craters in a warehouse district and wounding two night watchmen.
Ukrainian government forces have been working to tighten their encirclement of Donetsk and to cut off supply routes from the Russian border or the other main rebel stronghold, Luhansk. As the fighting has crept closer to Donetsk, the army has aimed artillery fire at rebel positions in the city but has not yet moved in with ground troops.
