Donetsk Authorities Not Ruling Out Sabotage By Ukrainian Forces As Cause Of Mine Fires

Donetsk Authorities Not Ruling Out Sabotage by Ukrainian Forces as Cause of Mine Fires

DONETSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd August, 2020) The Emergencies Ministry of the self-declared people's republic of Donetsk (DPR) does not exclude that the cause of fires at two coal mines on August 1 could be a sabotage attack by the Ukrainian security forces, DPR Minister for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations and Disaster Management Alexey Kostrubitsky told reporters on Monday.

"At the moment, the commission on the causes investigation and incident elimination is working out several versions of emergencies at the mines ... The first of them is a violation of fire safety .

.. the second is spontaneous combustion ... also sabotage by the armed forces of Ukraine cannot be ruled out," Kostrubitsky said.

Since 2014, the Ukrainian government has been conducting a military operation against the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east of the country, which declared independence after what they considered to be a coup in Ukraine two months earlier. The peace process and steps to de-escalate the conflict have been discussed in various forms, including during the meetings of the Contact Group in Minsk.