One Ukrainian soldier killed in past two days as 122 coal miners remain trapped in Donetsk Oblast from Russian-separatist shelling

One Ukrainian serviceman was killed and nine were wounded in the past 48 hours in eastern Ukraine as more than 200 coal miners were trapped underground because of Russian-separatist shelling in Ukraine-controlled Dzerzhynsk in Donetsk Oblast, presidential military spokesperson Col. Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Aug. 8.

Ninety-six miners were rescued so far from three coal mines in Dzherynsk, leaving 122 trapped underground, according to Donetsk Oblast police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin’s Facebook page.

Three civilians, in addition, were wounded as a result of Russian-separatist shelling of the coal-mining city of Dzerzhynsk, located 26 kilometers northwest of occupied Horlivka, and 53 kilometers north of Russian-held Donetsk. Three additional civilians were wounded by Russian-separatist shelling in the township of Nevelske in Donetsk Oblast, including two boys aged three and six.

Ukrainian positions were fired upon 111 times by artillery, mortar and tank shelling overnight on Aug. 8-9, reported military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh on his Facebook page on the morning of Aug. 9.
Combined Russian-separatist forces also shelled the coaling coke-producing city of Avdiivka at 4 a.m. on Aug. 8, but no casualties were reported, Abroskin reported.

Also attacked overnight on Aug. 8 with heavy artillery, mortars and tanks were the Donetsk Airport area, particularly near Vodyane, Opytne, Pisky, Avdiivka and Pervomayske. Kremlin proxies also launched tank attacks at Ukrainian positions in the vicinity of Maryinka, as well as fired from large-caliber machine guns close to Krasnohorivka. Russian-separatist forces also fired mortars at Ukrainian positions near Zaytseve and Kirove.

In Luhansk Oblast, Ukrainian positions took tank fire near Shchastya, where a regional electrical power generator is based. Heavy arms were employed near Troyitske and 
Russian forces instigated a series of armed provocations by Stanytsia Luhanska.

Ukrainian authorities also uncovered two arms caches in Starobilsk and Avdiivka in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, respectively. They discovered 7,000 ammunition rounds, 10 RGD-5 grenades, eight F-1 grenades and 11 grenade launchers. The owner of the arms cache, whose name authorities would not disclose, was detained in Avdiivka.

More than 6,800 people have been killed in Russia’s war against Ukraine since mid-April 2014, according to data provided by the United Nations. More than 2.2 million have been uprooted from their homes, including 1.4 internally, causing the worst humanitarian crisis in Ukraine since World War II.