Spot report by OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, 14 Oct 2014: Civilians Killed, Injured in GRAD Missile Strike northeast of Mariupol

This report is for media and the general public.

SUMMARY

A GRAD rocket struck a small village close to Mariupol, causing civilian casualties.

DETAIL

At 14:23hrs on 14 October, the SMM – in Mariupol (113km south of Donetsk city) – heard what it assessed to be heavy GRAD shelling to the northeast of the city. A Ukrainian military officer attached to the Joint Control and Co-ordination Centre in Mariupol and the Liaison Officer at the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” based in Mariupol later informed the SMM that the shelling had been directed towards a Ukrainian military checkpoint 1km east of the village of Sartana (19km northeast of Mariupol). Another source told the SMM that seven people had been killed and 10 to 15 injured in the shelling. 

The SMM arrived in Sartana at 17:00hrs, and observed the remnants of a GRAD rocket lodged in the ground. Its positioning suggested it had been fired from the east. A man – who appeared to be a plain-clothes policeman – told the SMM that seven people had been killed and fifteen wounded in the village as a result of incoming shelling at approximately 14:20hrs. The SMM left the village after 15 minutes because of constant shelling exchanges, assessed by the SMM to have been taking place between Ukrainian soldiers at a checkpoint just to the east of the village and unknown, presumably irregular armed forces affiliated to the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, positioned somewhere further to the east. 

The SMM went to a hospital in Mariupol at 17:30hrs, where a doctor on duty said 14 people – seven males and seven females aged between 33 and 65 – had been admitted. The 14, two of whom were seriously injured according to the doctor, had sustained injuries caused by shrapnel. At the hospital, an Orthodox priest, who claimed to have been at the scene immediately after the attack, told the SMM that he had seen several corpses. He added that Ukrainian military personnel had performed first aid on the injured.