TERRORISTS KIDNAP FOUR CHRISTIANS IN SLAVYANSK AND FIRE WEAPONRY FROM INSIDE THE PROTESTANT CHURCH

On Sunday, June 8, 2014, during a festive service in honor of Trinity Sunday, pro-Russian separatists kidnapped parishioners of the Transfiguration Church in the embattled city of Slavyansk located in the Donetsk region. This was the news reported via Twitter by fellow parishioner, Tatyana Lysenko. 

"Ruvim Pavenko, Albert Pavenko, Victor Brodarsky, and Vova Velichko – these brothers were just kidnapped directly from the service in Transfiguration Church and taken to the former offices of the Security Service of Ukraine in Slavyansk,” says the report.

According to a report by Slavyansk Pastor Pyotr Dudnik directly from the area of the Glad Tidings Church, the separatists are using “heavy artillery.”

Earlier on, it was reported that a NONA self-propelled artillery system was stationed at the specified address.

The militants who have taken over Slavyansk and are establishing their weapon emplacements around the city are also utilizing the premises of the Orthodox Churches.

“Blindfolded and bound parishioners are being used as human shields,” wrote Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on June 7.

“The security forces are not conducting military operations in the residential neighborhoods of Slavyansk,” says an ATO speaker.

Under the framework of the antiterrorist operation, the military does not use weapons against the civilian population. This was a statement made on June 8, 2014 by ATO Vladislav Seleznev, the head of the press center, on the TV channel “112 Ukraine."

"Regardless of what’s going on, the military does not use weapons against the civilian population, and does not fire on residential areas and places with large concentrations of people. We  only target militants; we move against their roadblocks and overcome them using precision strikes," he said.

Regarding the Merchant House cafe in Ukraine that was completely demolished by artillery file, according to information provided by the security forces, it was being used as a permanent base by pro-Russian terrorists . 

As reported earlier, today, on June 8, the militants are firing from residential districts in the city in an attempt to provoke return fire on civilian targets.

Moreover, the militants are deliberately shelling the city from the outskirts of town only to then accuse the Ukrainian authorities of inflicting civilian casualties.