Ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine say attacked by govt. forces

Ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s Donbass region say government forces have repeatedly attacked them, but Kiev denies the allegation, amid growing security tensions between Moscow and the US-led NATO over Ukraine.

On Thursday, representatives of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic said in a statement that Ukrainian government forces had opened fire on their positions in four separate incidents earlier in the day.

They claimed that the Ukrainian forces had used mortars, grenade launchers and a machine gun for launching the attacks, adding that they were establishing whether anyone had been hurt or killed.

“Armed forces of Ukraine have crudely violated the ceasefire regime, using heavy weapons, which, according to the Minsk agreements, should be withdrawn,” the statement further read.

Later in the day, the Ukrainian government denied the accusations of having targeted positions of armed ethnic Russians in the Donbass.

In 2014, Ukraine’s two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk - collectively known as the Donbass - were turned into self-proclaimed republics by ethnic Russians, leading to a bloody conflict between the government forces and the armed separatists.

The armed conflict began when a wave of protests in Ukraine overthrew a democratically-elected pro-Russia government and replaced it with a pro-West administration. The majority in those areas refused to endorse the new administration.

The developments come as Russia and the US-led NATO are at odds over Ukraine. Western countries accuse Russia of preparing for an invasion of Ukraine by amassing 150,000 troops and armaments near the border with that country.

Rejecting the allegation, Moscow accused Washington of "baseless hysteria" and said the troop build-up is defensive as NATO has increased its activity near Russian borders.

SS