74 Killed in 3 days in Ukraine's Donetsk
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Fierce clashes between government forces and rebel fighters have killed 74 civilians over the last three days in east Ukraine's war-torn Donetsk region, local authorities said Thursday.
"Over the past three days, 74 residents of the region were killed and another 116 were wounded as a result of fighting," the Donetsk region's health authorities said in a statement, according to AFP.
On Saturday, rebel leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko called for a ceasefire to avert a "humanitarian catastrophe," but his request was met warily by both the Ukrainian government in Kiev and the West.
The calls for a ceasefire have been seen as a way of pressuring Ukraine to allow in a Russian aid mission. The West says that could be used as a pretext to bring Russian soldiers into Ukraine.
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and Western leaders have repeatedly accused Moscow of providing arms and expertise to the rebels, something Russia denies.
Fighting in Donetsk has forced at least 300,000 of the city's one million residents to flee.