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As Ukraine Fighting Intensifies, Dental College Is Struck Ukrainian Army’s Artillery Hits Hospital, Killing Dental Patient
(about 7 hours later)
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. DONETSK, Ukraine — An artillery barrage on Thursday that was apparently aimed at a rebel headquarters here smashed into the dental wing of a nearby hospital instead, killing at least one patient and wounding several others.
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 episode highlighted the high risk of collateral damage and civilian casualties as the Ukrainian Army tries to defeat pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine by striking from a distance. In recent days, government forces have encircled Donetsk, a separatist stronghold, but have not tried to storm it with ground troops, opting instead to bombard rebel positions and gradually tighten the siege.
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. Along a front line of that cordon on Thursday, separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet as it streaked low over fields outside Donetsk. The pilot ejected, and a battle broke out as both sides rushed to reach where his parachute landed, witnesses 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. By all appearances, the shells that struck the dental ward in Donetsk came from government positions outside the city. They fell around 10 a.m. along a line running from the hospital, through a park, and toward the rebel headquarters in a central district of Donetsk.
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 pediatric part of the dental wing, 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.
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. Outside, Alexander Perikh sat groaning on a sidewalk, his head bandaged from recent dental surgery. He said he had unplugged his intravenous tube and run from the building when it was hit. “I don’t feel well at all,” he said.
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. Farther 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 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. 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.
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 artillery fire appeared to be the Ukrainian military’s second attempt to blow up the headquarters. Rockets rained on the area last Friday, killing a janitor working in a nearby courtyard. Separatists said afterward that that volley, too, had missed its mark.
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. It was not the first time that Ukrainian artillery fire had struck a medical facility: a hospital was hit in Slovyansk earlier in the conflict as government troops retook that city from the rebels. Human Rights Watch also reported this week on the deaths of two medical workers from shelling in the war, among other disruptions to medical care.
Government forces bombed Donetsk from the air for the first time overnight Tuesday to Wednesday, leaving craters in a warehouse district and wounding two night watchmen.
To the east of Donetsk, Russia has again amassed forces along the border with Ukraine, and the United States and NATO said that if an invasion were launched there under the justification of peacekeeping, it would risk turning an internecine conflict in Ukraine into a new war among nation states in Europe.
Speaking in Kiev on Thursday, NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, called on Russia to withdraw its troops from the border and “step back from the brink.”
Mr. Rasmussen said the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine last month, which killed all 298 people on board, illustrated the “reckless” policy of Russia’s support for separatists who had tried to seize two predominantly Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine. On Thursday, Dutch, Australian and Malaysian police officers indefinitely suspended their search for human remains because of the fighting.
Aleksandr Borodai, the Russian citizen who had led the Donetsk People’s Republic, the main separatist group here, resigned Thursday in favor of a local man, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, countering Western criticism that the movement’s leadership is controlled from Moscow.
In Kiev, black smoke from burning tires rose over the city center again as clashes over the fate of the Independence Square tent camp — the epicenter of anti-government protests last winter — broke out between holdout protesters and national guard troops. The authorities who were ushered into power by the protests, but who now say the square has played its role and should be cleared, halted the effort to dismantle the camp after a tent caught fire.