KYIV. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Kyiv's adversary on Friday opened fire on the checkpoint at the separation line in Donbas, where a humanitarian convoy from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was undergoing an inspection at the time, the Ukrainian military said.
The Shchastia entry-exit checkpoint in Ukraine's Luhansk region was attacked at about 12 p.m. on Friday, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny said on Facebook. "The drivers and trucks that delivered humanitarian cargo from the UNHCR yesterday and were moving back from a [Kyiv-] uncontrolled territory were passing passport control there at the time," he said.
The checkpoint came under the fire of a large caliber machine gun (totally, about 50 shots), a 82mm mortar (3 shots), an AGS-17 grenade launcher (10 shots) from the populated locality of Vesela Hora, he said.
No casualties among Ukrainian soldiers or civilians have been reported.
"Four motor vehicles of the humanitarian convoy have passed the checkpoint, and people evacuated to safety. Eight vehicles remained in the inter-position zone," Zaluzhny said.
The Ukrainian State Emergency Situations Service later said that apart from the checkpoint, an administrative building of the fire station was damaged in the attack on Shchastia: shrapnel damaged the building's facade and drainage system. A direct hit by a shell was recorded in the village of Artyom. There is no information about any casualties at this point.
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