Horlivka (the Ukraine), July 28, 2014
On July 27 at 12:35 the Ukrainian Army shelled the Horlivka city center with heavy artillery. Without warning residential districts along Lenin Avenue near the central market, Pobedy (“Victory”) Avenue and Gagarin Street as well as Maysky Village and the modern house district were shelled with Grad missile launchers, reports the Horlivka and Sloviansk Diocese’s website.
Residential houses were demolished, and roads and streetcar (tram) rails destroyed. According to preliminary information from the Public Health Department of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, as a result of the combat operations 13 people have been killed in Horlivka including two children (a 1-year-old and a 5-year-old). Numerous people incurred injuries of varying severity.
The 2nd City Hospital was massively shelled with Grad[i] missiles, reported Archpriest David Solomonishvili, Rector of the hospital Church of the Great-Martyr and Healer Panteleimon. One shell hit the area two steps from the maternity hospital porch but did not explode. The police have put a cordon round the area; field engineers are due to arrive. In spite of the wartime situation in the city, the maternity hospital is operating in normal mode, the women in labor and babies have not been evacuated. Two more shells fired by the Ukrainian Army exploded on the territory of the 2nd City Hospital: one in the yard between the maternity home and the morgue building, the other just in front of the entrance of the admissions office of the main hospital building.
As a result of a shell hit, the Church of the Great-Martyr Panteleimon, situated at the 2nd City Hospital, was partially damaged. According to the hospital church rector, Archpriest David Solomonishvili, the shell fell near the streetcar (tram) tracks in Gagarin Street near the church. The church façade on the side of the sanctuary as well as the stone church fencing was partially damaged, the church windows were blown out by the explosion. The shock from the blast blew out the bell tower doors. One piece of shrapnel got into the altar. Fortunately, nobody in the church was hurt or killed.
