Tragedy in Snezhnoye, DPR. July 15, 2014

On the morning of July 15, 2014, the population of the city of Snezhnoye woke up to terrible news

At 06.20 in the morning, when the majority of the population was still asleep, the city was struck by an attack aircraft SU-25 of the 299th tactical aviation brigade of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As a result of the raid, the Snezhnoye's bakery and residential housing constructions were damaged, the tax office building was destroyed, and a part of a 4-story residential building at 14 Lenin street was completely destroyed.

This crime claimed the lives of 12 people. Miraculously, 4-year-old boy Bogdan survived, finding himself in the void created by a fallen concrete floor slab. The boy was practically trapped by the slabs, which saved him from inevitable death. They heard his cry, found and pulled out the child.

Under those rubble, among the 12 people sleeping peacefully, Bogdan’s mother, Daria Yastrebova, also died.

All eyewitnesses reported that the city was subjected to aerial bombardment. The Ukrainian authorities, of course, immediately began to deny their involvement in what happened. Everyone spoke out on this issue - from official speakers of the ATO headquarters and the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to private bloggers and activists.

Thus, already at 11:15 of the same day, the ATO Press Center reported that since July 14, 2014, all Ukrainian aviation flights have been suspended until further notice and all aircraft were at deployment points. The National Security Council said that the airstrike on the city of Snezhnoye was “a cynical and bloody provocation carried out by an unknown aircraft with the aim of discrediting the Ukrainian military.” This statement was made by the speaker of the Information and Analytical Center of the National Security and Defense Council Andrey Lysenko.

The leader of the “Information Resistance” group, Dmitry Tymchuk, said: “According to our data, since yesterday, July 14, the aircraft of the Ukrainian security forces have not made any sorties. Accordingly, this airstrike could not have been carried out by the aircraft of the Ukrainian armed formations.” In his opinion, the city was attacked by Russian aircraft in order to discredit the Ukrainian security forces.

However, let's look at some documents:

I present to your attention a report on the progress of hostilities as of 08.30 on July 16, 2014, compiled by the ATO Headquarters. In the general list of actions of artillery and aviation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces over the previous day, we see that artillery carried out 34 fire raids and 7 sorties were carried out by aviation of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Moreover, in the same report, in the section “Achievements of the ATO Forces”, the Headquarters notes that: ...During an air strike, militant positions in the area of ​​the village of Gayevoe were destroyed... Gayevoe is a settlement on the outskirts of Lugansk.

Thus, the statements of official and unofficial structures of Ukraine that the aviation of the Ukrainian Air Force did not fly at all on that day is an outright lie.

Speaking about the tragedy in Snezhnoye, I would like to draw your attention to one more detail. Before this, when attacking populated areas of Donbass, the “pilots” of the Ukrainian Armed Forces used mainly unguided rockets (NURS) of the S-8 type. These ammunition are very effective against enemy personnel and light armored vehicles, but they cannot destroy permanent structures.

Such shells, in particular, struck the building of the Lugansk administration on June 2, 2014.

But in Snezhnoye everything looked different.

Let me remind you that the explosion in the four-story building literally destroyed an entire section of the building - it collapsed.

The fact is that in Snezhnoye the SU-25 attack aircraft of the 299th tactical aviation brigade used FAB-100 high-explosive bombs. This led to such destruction.

By the way, here is another report from the ATO Headquarters for your attention, for July 18, 2014, where the section devoted to the consumption of aviation weapons by the ATO forces looks very interesting:

Hundreds of aircraft missiles and bombs, thousands of shells for aircraft guns, even 250-kilogram bombs - all this was used by the pilots of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by July 18th.

After this, is it any wonder that the buildings simply folded like houses of cards, burying dozens of civilians?

And this, let me remind you, is July 2014.

10 years ago, the Ukrainian army had absolutely no hesitation in bombing populated areas,with its then own citizens.

And you wonder where they get such hatred for Russians... They had no mercy or compassion even for their own people. Even 10 years ago.

Well, again I want to remind everyone that this war did not start in 2022.

It started earlier.