Pro-Russians Attack, Kill Five Ukraine Battalion Members in Donetsk Oblast

Pro-Russians Attack, Kill Five Ukraine Battalion Members in Donetsk Oblast
Mary Chastain

At least one Ukrainian Donbas Volunteer Battalion member and five pro-Russians were killed when 150-200 pro-Russian forces ambushed them in a battle in Karlivka. Twenty Ukrainians were wounded and many were captured.

The Kyiv Post reported:

The ambush took place around 6 a.m. on May 23 while the group was approaching a separatist-held checkpoint near a dam reservoir next to the village where usually “7-10 people stood guard,” Semyon Semenchenko, the group’s leader, told 112 Ukraina television channel.

Instead up to 200 Kremlin-backed separatists surrounded the battalion and used automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and sniper fire from rifles, he posted on Facebook. An hour later, the separatists were reinforced by an armored personnel carrier, heavy machine guns and grenades.

“Just 15 kilometers from here in the direction of Krasnoarmiysk there is a Ukrainian military checkpoint with four armored personnel carriers,” Semenchenko posted to Facebook. “We can’t get to our (surrounded) comrades, there is sniper fire. All of my calls to military commanders have fallen on deaf ears.”

On Facebook, Praivy Sektor leader Dmytro Yarosh said his group showed up to relieve the Donbas Battalion. Due to their help, some members of the Battalion escaped. He also blasted the leaders in Kyiv for not sending more help: “Again, either the counterterrorist operation leadership is incompetent or they are traitors…again, our boys have too few weapons, are ill-equipped, while the terrorists have superior arms.”

The Right Sector party claimed four members of the Battalion were kidnapped or killed and 20 men were wounded. Semenchenko told Reuters one soldier was killed and five were injured. He also said the pro-Russian forces included Chechen fighters, but there is no confirmation.

A Reuters reporter was at the scene:

In Karlovka itself a Reuters correspondent saw two dead men both dressed in black battle fatigues. One lay on his back by the roadside while another lay some distance away near a burned-out warehouse. He had a gunshot wound in his head.

Another fighter, dressed also in battle fatigues, was clenching his fists in pain as he was being tended to by paramedics for leg wounds.

Here are a few photos of the aftermath:

On May 22, over 13 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Volnovakha in a surprise ambush by pro-Russian forces in one of the deadliest confrontations. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

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