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At least 1 civilian killed in attack in Ukraine's Donetsk

Xinhua, December 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

At least one civilian was killed and another was wounded on Wednesday in an attack on a checkpoint in Ukraine's Donetsk region, authorities said.

The attack occurred at about 9 a.m. (GMT 0700) at Mayorsk checkpoint located at the contact line separating the government and the pro-independence insurgent forces, the State Border Service of Ukraine said in a statement.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry blamed rebels for the attack, saying it was a provocative act aimed at destabilizing the situation in the restive region.

Ivan Prykhodko, the insurgent-appointed acting mayor of Gorlovka city, which lies 15 km south of the checkpoint, accused government forces of being responsible for the attack, saying it targeted a passenger bus.

Prykhodko put the number of those killed in the shelling at two civilians, saying one person was killed by gunfire and another died from a heart seizure during the attack. Two civilians were wounded, he added.

Over the past three months, the number of conflict-related civilian casualties in eastern Ukraine has significantly dropped as fighting abated and shifted to non-residential areas.

According to the Ukrainian government's estimates, about 10,000 people have been killed since the armed conflict erupted in April 2014 between government troops and pro-independence militants in Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Endi