Defenders of Slavyansk  say Ukraine’s Armed Forces used chemical weapons

Ukrainian military used chemical weapons against Semyonovka village, near Slavansk, First Deputy Defense Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Sergey Velikorodny has said.

“They fired gas shells several times,” he said. “The ones fired at our positions burnt through asphalt and went 1-1.5m deep into the ground leaving a kind of haze on the spot. Many got poisoned then and many were hospitalized.”

Deputy Commander of the First Slavyansk Brigade, Sergey Shamberin, said he was poisoned during that bombardment. “I was poisoned, but my doctor saved my life. We lost two people then,” Shamberin said recalling the incidents that happened about year ago.

To recall, the Donetsk self-defense forces left Slavyansk on the night to July 5, 2014 after more than two months of defense battles. They had to move to Donetsk then to protect the capital city of the Donetsk People’s Republic from the offensive of Ukraine’s armed forces. In the course of the military actions in August 2014, Ukraine’s plan to surround Donetsk failed. Several large groups of the Ukrainian military were surrounded. Estimated 900 fighters of the nationalist battalions and the Ukrainian army soldiers were trapped and killed in battles in Ilovaysk.