KIEV
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has claimed that Kiev possesses evidence that the eastern city of Kramatorsk was hit by Russian-made rockets and can prove it to European leaders participating in Wednesday’s Minsk summit.
Ukrainian, Russian, German and French leaders are holding a summit in Belarus' capital Wednesday, aiming to reach another cease-fire agreement in the drawn-out Ukraine conflict.
Poroshenko has said that 16 people were killed and 48 others wounded in rocket attacks on the Kramatorsk Counter Terrorism Center, located at the city’s airport.
"There is evidence which shows the use of Tornado multiple rockets against the civilian population," Poroshenko said Tuesday.
"We have in our hands a piece of a Tornado multiple rocket which can hit the target from a distance of 90 kilometers," the Ukrainian leader said, adding that "we will use that as evidence in Minsk and in the European Council."
The Ukrainian president toured Kramatorsk on Tuesday night, visiting wounded people in hospital.
Poroshenko said that using Tornado multiple rockets, which were Russian-made, to kill civilians in their homes and streets 50 kilometers far away from the war front was a crime against humanity.
More than 5,300 people have been killed and 12,200 others injured in eastern Ukraine since mid-April last year in the ongoing conflict between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists, the UN high commissioner for human rights said earlier this month.
Prince Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in Geneva that "in just the three weeks up to Feb. 1, at least 224 civilians have been killed and 545 wounded."
The situation escalated since January, despite a cease-fire agreement signed by the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists on Sept. 5, 2014 in Minsk.
