We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
OVER 100 INMATES broke out of jail when shells rained down on a high-security prison in the besieged rebel stronghold of Donetsk in east Ukraine, killing one, local authorities said today.
Mortar blasts rocked the correctional facility in a western district of the city yesterday evening, hitting the living areas, administrative headquarters and an electrical substation, the city council said in a statement.
The bombardment sparked a mass jail break that saw scores of detainees flee the prison.
“A riot started in the facility and 106 people escaped their place of detention,” the statement said, adding that three convicts were seriously wounded by the shelling.
By this morning some had been returned to the facility, with a prison official telling AFP that 40 inmates were still missing and thought to be hiding in buildings around the prison.
An AFP correspondent at the scene found the prison gates open and rebel gunmen patrolling around.
A shell hole some 50 centimetres (20 inches) deep could be seen in the asphalt in a jail yard.
A spokesman from the rebel Vostok battalion going by the nom de guerre Koba said that insurgent fighters had come to secure the location over fears that escaped prisoners could try and get arms.
An AFP crew reported hearing sporadic bombardments across the insurgent bastion overnight.
Inner city Donetsk has been pounded by heavy shelling over the past few days as Ukrainian forces have surrounded the city and vowed to retake the pro-Russian rebel bastion.
A growing number of civilian casualties have been reported as artillery bombardments have hit hospitals and homes around the beleaguered city.
Over 1,300 have been killed and more than 285,000 people have fled their homes in the east due to fierce clashes in four months of what the Red Cross has already deemed a civil war.
- © AFP 2014.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Not a chance I’d go back unless I was near the end of my sentence. The country is in such a mess they probably don’t even know who is supposed to be in there.
Sounds like a second rate Netflix series
I wonder do they speak in English with American accents?
And they’re so innocent looking in the photos!
No worries they’ll soon be here
What a s**thole.
Now that’s what a jail should be……!!!
Lucky ducks
Reminds me of something that happened in the Simpsons once
So the government is shelling homes, schools and hospitals? Where are the outraged protesters and die-ins in front of the Ukrainian embassy? Where are the calls for boycott? Hypocrites all these protesters doing so “in the name of innocent civilians”
The Ukrainians aren’t purposely targeting those areas. Firing roughly 50kg rounds over distances of more than 15km without any eyes on the ground is incredibly unreliable. You’re basically shooting a round into the distance and hoping it lands within 100m of the intended target.
It also doesn’t help that the rebels have a habit of using Ukrainian police stations and government buildings as their bases rather than the large military facilities in the area. This means that, in order to hit rebel strongholds and supply depots, you need to fire at areas where civilians might get hit.
If the Terrorists really wanted to save the civilian population they would unconditionally surrender with immediate effect. But they wont because the entire Terrorist leadership is now not made up of Ukrainians but Russians and Putin doesn’t give a flying f**k about anyone in Ukraine.
So like Hamas using schools and UN buildings to store weapons and shoot rockets from? Explain to me why it is then ok for Ukrainian army to shell such buildings but not ok for the IDF? Sounds like 2 standards to me. And for the record I have no sympathy for either side in the mess in Ukraine. Just baffled by the hypocrisy.
have your say