Statement of NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov concerning the death of civilians near Olenivka village as a result of the provocative shelling by the Russian-terrorist groupings

I express my sincere condolences to the families of the tragically killed Ukrainian citizens and the victims of the shelling by the Russian-terrorist groupings near Olenivka village.

On April 27, 2016, at 02.45 AM, Russian occupation troops and illegal armed groups of so-called "DNR" conducted another provocation near Olenivka village in Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region, where four civilians were killed and ten were wounded because of the shelling of the security checkpoint.

This cynical provocative act was aimed at discrediting of Ukraine's image in the eyes of the civilian population of the temporarily occupied territories and the international community on the eve of the regular meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk and the great Christian holiday of Easter.

The facts of the committed crime prove that the provocation was planned ahead thoroughly. It was preceded by the following events:

shortly before, a group of Russian propagandistic reporters came to Donetsk; they were among the first to arrive at the place where the provocation had been conducted and immediately launched a direct television broadcast from the scene;

starting from April 26, militants began preparations for the bloody provocation by artificially creating queues on the exit from Olenivka village under contrived pretexts, delaying the check of documents of the citizens who were leaving the occupied territories;

the representative of so-called "DNR" Eduard Basurin "predicted" and announced in advance the shelling of the security checkpoint in Olenivka, which is located on the territory controlled by the Russian-terrorist groupings.

Based on irrefutable facts and testimonies of local citizens, it becomes clearly understood that the shelling of civilians was conducted from the filtration plant area near Yasne village (the north-western outskirts of Dokuchaevsk (47°47′28.7″ 37°37′59.4″)), which is located on the territory controlled by the militants over a 4 kilometers distance from the place of the tragedy.

I emphasize that the Ukrainian party strictly fulfills the Minsk agreements and undertaken commitments. We withdrew heavy weapons, tanks, artillery and mortars for a specified distance from the contact line that is confirmed by constant checks of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, which informs the world community and helps to resolve the situation in the East of Ukraine, while the Russian-terrorist groupings are constantly violating these agreements, threaten and by all means hinder the activities of the monitoring mission.

The evidence of noninvolvement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the accident in Olenivka village is as follows:

the observers of the Russian and Ukrainian parties of the Joint Center for control and coordination of the ceasefire and stabilization of the boundary sides did not detect any fact of shelling of Olenevka by the artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine between 00.00 to 06.00 AM, 04.27.2016;

during the last month, there has been to confirmed case of violation of the ceasefire by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in terms of using the artillery in this area.

Therefore, the abovementioned facts refute the accusations by the Russian propagandistic media in alleged involvement of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the death of the people in Olenivka and, thus, indicate the complex of provocative actions and a bloody terrorist attack by the Russian occupation forces and illegal armed groups with a view to discredit the ATO forces and for information covering of further military escalation of the conflict.

Such cases are another proof of the crimes against civilians and should not be ignored. They should be thoroughly investigated not only within the Trilateral Contact Group but also in the international military tribunal.