Two Ukraine Soldiers Killed From Sniper Shots In Donbas Conflict Zone

RFE
16 Oct 2019, 05:15 GMT+10

Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed and one wounded in the war zone of eastern Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian military announced on October 15 during its daily briefing.

Among the two killed was Poltava-region native Yaroslava Nykonenko, 36, who served in the elite security brigade of the military's General Staff.

Both soldiers were killed from sniper fire, the military said.

Nykonenko's father, Serhiy Nykonenko, also fought in the Donbas conflict and was killed from Grad missile fire on January 18, 2015. An Afghan war veteran, he died aged 52.

At least seven military personnel have been killed this month in the conflict, which has raged since April 2014 when Russian-backed separatists started forcibly taking over government buildings, and law enforcement and security stations in the two easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

More than 90 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the year, according to a monthly count by local media outlet Censor.net.

Among them were at least two other women.

Sergeant Iryna Shevchenko, a Marine combat medic, died from her wounds on July 1 when an anti-tank guided missile struck the ambulance in which she was riding to evacuate a wounded soldier in Donetsk region.

She was a native of the southern Kherson region and was a fish monger before joining the military. She was buried in her hometown on July 3.

The ambulance driver, Serhiy Mayboroda, was killed on the spot during the rocket attack.

On April 2, machine-gunner Yana Chervona, 40, was killed while in a trench in Luhansk region during a barrage of 82-millimeter and 120-millimeter mortar rockets.

She was a native of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city located in the northeast, and served in the Donbas-Ukraine special purpose battalion of the 54th separate mechanized brigade.

More than 13,000 people have been killed in the war and 1.5 million more internally displaced, according to the UN.

With reporting by Ukrainska Pravda, Novynaria, and Censor.net