Ukraine Reports: Separatist Rebels Killed Dozens in Attack on Refugees

Separatist rebels on Monday attacked a caravan of cars carrying refugees trying to flee war-ravaged eastern Ukraine, killing “dozens” of people in a devastating barrage of artillery fire, Ukrainian military officials said, though rebel leaders denied there had been any attack at all.

Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, said at a briefing in Kiev, the capital, that “terrorists had perpetrated a bloody crime” by attacking the refugee convoy with Grad rocket systems and other heavy weapons supplied by Russia.

Although Colonel Lysenko did not give a precise tally of the fatalities, if confirmed, the episode would easily rank among the most deadly for civilians since separatists began seizing cities and towns in the region more than four months ago.

“Many people died, including women and children,” he said, adding that the assault took place on the main highway leading south out of the regional capital of Luhansk, between the villages of Khryashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka.

At least 2,086 people have been killed and more than 5,000 wounded in Ukraine, a spokeswoman for the United Nations human rights office said last week, with more than half the deaths occurring in just the last two weeks.

The United Nations statistics, based partly on reports from local health officials, include military and civilian casualties. The numbers are extremely difficult to calculate, in part because many dead and wounded rebels are taken to Russia. Those being treated are a common sight at hospitals along the Ukrainian border.

By far the single largest loss of life occurred when a Malaysia Airlines plane was shot down last month, killing all 298 people on board.

The highway where Ukraine says the attack on the refugees took place connects Luhansk, which has been the focus of a government offensive to regain territory controlled by separatists, with the Russian border. The road has seen heavy fighting in recent days as Ukrainian forces have tried to seal off supply routes into the city from Russia.

Here in Donetsk, the last major rebel stronghold, Aleksandr Zakharchenko, the prime minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, denied that any such attack had occurred.

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