© AFP Photo / Genya SavilovA picture shows a Ukrainian multiple rocket launcher "Grad" set on the position near the eastern city of Seversk
At least 13 civilians and likely dozens more have been killed by continuing artillery barrages, as government troops close in on militia positions around the city of Gorlovka in eastern Ukraine.
A 1-year old - killed next to her parents - and a 5-year old are among the dead, according to information published by the Donetsk regional administration. Several local journalists on the ground have reported that as many as 30 have been killed, as fighting continues.
Government troops reached the outskirts of the city of 250,000 people late on Thursday, and have pushed militants back into positions inside residential areas.
From about 5am Sunday morning, heavy artillery shells began to explode alongside several of the main highways.
"They were aiming for our headquarters, but missed and hit residential areas instead," a local militant source told RIA news agency.
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One of the mortars hit the top floor of a popular supermarket that had customers inside. Another hit exploded in a courtyard outside an apartment block, and another next to a maternity hospital. We still don't know how many are dead - there are ambulances everywhere," local resident Sergey, who did not want to give his surname for fear of reprisals, told RT.
"My house has been reduced to rubble, and one of my in-laws has a piece of shrapnel lodged in his leg, while another has eye damage," said Vera, another local resident, by phone.
Comment: Great presentation. One criticism though: The suggestion that the BRICS alternative was part of some plan all along to crash the dollar and end US hegemony, implying that the Russia-China alliance will be a case of 'meet the new boss, same as the old', may be one conspiracy too many.
It probably would be in the long-term, especially given historical patterns and the socio-biological fact that psychopaths rise to the top. Brutal oligarchy is the norm on this planet. We've been in a US-UK-dominated system for some 300 years now, so it's all we know.
But that also means that we can't project that experience onto a potential world system led by a Russian-Chinese financial-political-cultural alliance, which would at least begin on a fairer platform than rapacious Western 'free trade'.
Judging by their actions thus far - towards their own people and others - the Russians and Chinese appear to mean it when they say they want to introduce new, fair, genuinely humanitarian international norms.