troops in east ukraine
© REUTERS/GLEB GARANICH
The Ukrainian Health Ministry told Interfax it has information that four children have been killed in a military operation in the Donetsk region. It has no information about children killed in the Lugansk region. The press service did not specify the causes of death. At the same time, Tatiana Bakhteyeva, head of the parliamentary committee on healthcare, said on Monday over forty children have died of shrapnel and bullet wounds in Donbass.

"According to official reports filed by forensic experts, four people have been killed. Those children were killed in the Donetsk region. There is currently no information on the children killed in the Lugansk region," the Ukrainian Health Ministry press service reported on Monday.

The press service for Tatiana Bakhteyeva said she has received information on over forty children killed in Donbass form her own sources. "She received this information from her own sources, primarily form morgues and doctors."

"Unfortunately, information on the number of killed is not being collected in a centralized way," Bakhteyeva was quoted by her press service as saying.

Almost 60 temporary accommodation centers (TACs) were established over the weekend in the border areas of the Central and Southern federal districts of Russia to house refugees from Ukraine.

"On Saturday and Sunday in the central and southern parts of the country 58 temporary accommodation centers were established, now they are home to 12,800 people," while the day before there were 11,200, a source at a Russian law enforcement agency told RIA Novosti on Monday, adding that another six mobile facilities have been set up to house a total of 3,000 people. Since June, the deteriorating situation in the southeast of Ukraine has triggered increased flows of refugees to Russia, particularly to the bordering region of Rostov.

According to the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, more than ten Russian regions are already receiving refugees from the southeastern regions of Ukraine. Currently, the seven border regions accommodate more than 18,000 people forced to leave Ukraine, with 12,800 of them staying in TACs. Most of the refugees are located in Rostov Region and Crimea. Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry organized an "air bridge" to evacuate the refugees to other regions, where temporary shelters have been prepared for them, including tent camps.

The total number of TACs set up in Russia currently exceeds 200. A representative of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Russia praised the country's efforts in organizing refugee camps in Rostov Region for people fleeing crisis-torn Ukraine.

The fighting continues in eastern Ukraine despite the temporary ceasefire declared by Ukrainian president Petr Poroshenko, the prime minister of the unilaterally proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said on Saturday.

"In Slavyansk, hostilities are continuing, and the Ukrainian president, Petr Poroshenko, has once again failed to keep a promise to cease fire," Alexander Borodai told during a briefing in Donetsk.

"Churches are being bombed in Slavyansk, and the zone of the so-called 'anti-terrorist operation' includes the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic as well. No humanitarian corridors have been set up," Borodai said.

The Donetsk People's Republic is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster, he said, claiming that local water supply systems are almost completely obliterated. "The pump stations are destroyed. We asked for a ceasefire in order to repair them, but the shooting went on, and two repair workers were killed and another two wounded as a result," Borodai said.

If the stations came under fire again, the whole of Donbas, a vast industrial region in eastern Ukraine, would be left without drinking water, he said. "We thought of drilling wells in Donetsk, but the subsoil waters of Donbas are undrinkable, and that means that soon there will be a tremendous flow of refugees from Donbas to the Russian Federation as there will be no supply of drinking water," Borodai said.

Ukrainian aircraft attacked the village Semenovka in Donetsk region. As the representatives of the self-defense forces of Slavyansk told ITAR-TASS news agency by telephone, airstrike started about 02:00 local time (3:00 MSK). "Aircraft attacked Semenovka. They used incendiary bombs," said the representative to the agency. Information on casualties or damage has not been reported yet.

The press service of the Donetsk People's Republic has not confirmed this information yet.

At 23:00 MSK on June 20 the Presidential Decree on unilateral ceasefire in the east was implemented. According to the President's Decree, the ceasefire will last until 11:00 MSK June 27. However, "in case, if self-defenders attack Ukrainian units or civilians, the military will fire back," stressed Poroshenko.

In particular, the decree provides for the implementation of the plan of president of Ukraine "on the peaceful settlement of the situation in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

On Friday, the president of Ukraine ordered to cease fire for a week to all power units involved in the raid in the east. He has also presented a peace plan to resolve the situation in eastern Ukraine. The plan consists of 15 steps and provides security guarantees for all participants in the negotiations: the exemption from criminal responsibility of those who laid down their arms and not committed serious crimes, as well as the release of hostages.