Several sources of information in Donetsk reported to the monitoring team of InformNapalm that large number of Russian troops were killed on the 19th October 2014 as a result of an artillery strike in the area of Children’s Tuberculosis Hospital (label 1 on map). The number of casualty estimates varied between 100 and 200 soldiers. As the information is dramatic it was necessary for the InformNapalm team to carry out further verification.
The information trail begins on the 16th October. One of our sources, who witnessed the situation personally, provided information regarding the arrival of a group of approximately 50 Russian soldiers at the locality of the hospital. Later that morning the same servicemen were spotted wearing the uniform with DPR insignia.
In the course of the past two months the militants have been trying to capture the Donetsk airport, therefore the appearance of more Russian troops group did seem as something particularly unusual. Besides this report, information was received a few days earlier regarding up to two battalions of Russian troops arriving in the area of Durnaya Balka.
According to our witnesses, on the 18.10.2014 sometime after 21:00 the militants in Donetsk panicked in response to some perceived threat and shelled the hospital district and the trooper’s base. It was reported that a large number of Russian troops were killed and wounded in this artillery shelling.
Two days later, on October 20th, a violent explosion occurred in Donetsk at the chemical factory (label 2). This explosion was so dramatic it damaged multiple buildings around the city. In the course of data collection from local sources we found out that the militants’ artillery was firing from Makeyevka, “Metalurk” stadium district, Donetsk Kalininsky district as well as the area of the former mine №11 shaft.
The factory was most likely stuck by one of the militant groups which either did it on purpose, or tried to hit the ATO positions in Pesky, probably from “Metalurg” stadium territory, but the shell fell short hitting the chemical factory causing further casualties.
As reported earlier, different groups of militants’ have been fighting among themselves, as well as between themselves and Russian forces in that region. While one cannot rule out any option, the most likely scenario is that Russian casualties have been inflicted by conflicts between the DPR `warlords’
Information prepared by InformNapalm
Translated by Roman Vlasof