Zelenopillya rocket attack

The Zelenopillya rocket attack took place during the War in Donbass.

Event

In the early morning of 11 July 2014, separatist rebels from the self-proclaimed People's Republics of Luhansk fired a barrage of the newly Russian-made 9A52-4 Tornado rockets in 40 salvos beginning at 4:40 a.m. They targeted an armored convoy of the Ukrainian Ground Forces from a distance of 15 km. The Ukrainian column was camped in a field near the village of Zelenopillya, situated along the main highway to Luhansk in the Sverdlovsk/Leninsky district near Rovenky. The town is located only 9 km from the Russian border. This caused speculation on whether the rockets originated in Russia, since the "Tornado" has a distance of 90 km and the "Grad" a distance of more than 12 km. The Ukrainian armored brigades were said to be part of a main contingent of troops guarding the border against the illegal movement of military equipment from Russia into Eastern Ukraine.

At least 19 soldiers were killed and 93 others were injured in the rocket strike. Many of whom were burned alive while still in their vehicles. Four Ural-4320 transport trucks full of troops were struck. According to one soldier's account, the 1st Battalion of the 79th Mykolaiv Airmobile Brigade was "almost completely destroyed" during the rocket onslaught. Chief physician of a regional hospital, Serhiy Ryzhenko reported the wounded to be in grave condition, with some undergoing traumatic leg amputations and lose of limbs.

Zoryan Shkiryak, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister Arsen Avakov, described the destruction as "really heavy" and put the Ukrainian military death toll at 30. The defense ministry lowered the toll to 23 killed and 93 others injured.

DPR military leader, Igor Strelkov, told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency that his fighters participated in the Zelenopillya rocket attack, and were successful in killing 30 soldiers and destroying a Ukrainian armored convoy from the 24th Mechanised Brigade.

Reactions

In response to the rocket strike, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko held an emergency cabinet meeting and issued a statement condemning the attack and vowing to "find and destroy" the pro-Russian rebels accountable. He also said for every servicemen's life the militants will pay with "with tens and hundreds of their own".

It was first assumed the rockets were fired from the common BM-21 Grad mobile rocket launcher, used by both by Russia and the Ukrainian military. It was later discovered that the weapons used in the attack were the newly made 9A52-4 Tornado mobile rocket launchers, only found in the Russian Armed Forces.

The United States Department of Treasury instituted a new set of sanctions on Russia after reliable evidence emerged of the rockets being fired from within Russian territory. Videos by a resident of the rocket launchers firing at Ukrainian positions, matched the very same Google Maps view of the same physical features inside Russian territory, bordering Ukraine.

The same day, four Ukrainian border guards were killed in another rocket attack near Luhansk. Ukrainian jets targeted rebel columns the next day, hitting 50 targets.

See also

• War in Donbass
• Novosvitlivka refugee convoy attack
• Volnovakha bus attack
• January 2015 Mariupol rocket attack
• Russia–Ukraine relations