The Lugansk city authorities called the Monday airstrike on the city centre, which killed eight, a war crime by the Kiev authorities.
In a statement on Tuesday head of the Lugansk People’s Republic’s press service Vladimir Inogorodsky said in a statement: ‘I declare that the air strike on a non-combatant city is a war crime.’
He added he was outraged by claims from Kiev that the air attack had never taken place, and the blast had been instigated by the local self-defence.
‘I was a direct witness of the attack. I saw planes in the run-up. We have a surveillance camera on our building, and now, Ukrainian media are spreading information that we shot at ourselves from manpads,’ Inogorodsky said.
On Monday, Ukrainian military aircraft bombed Lugansk twice. The first shot was at the administration building in the centre of the city.
The second airstrike went into a roadblock near Lugansk, according to LPR’s officials. Cluster bombs banned by the international convention were used in the attack.
On the same day, a clash between independence supporters and the Kiev border patrol lasted all day with five reported dead.
Eight members of the Ukrainian special forces were injured, according to the national State Border Guard Service.
