At least 19 dead as a result of artillery strikes on Donetsk over past 24 hours

© EPA/ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO

At least 19 people died as a result of artillery strikes on Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, over the past 24 hours, the head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk's People Republic defense ministry's political department, Eduard Basurin told TASS on Tuesday.

Over the 24 hours at least three militias were killed and another 36 fighters were injured, Basurin said.

Earlier, the press service of the self-proclaimed Donetsk's People Republic Interior Ministry said the remains of the bodies of four people were found after artillery strikes between the village of Biryuzovo and the cemetery of the mine 29. A criminal case was launched under the article 'murder of two or more people'."

Artillery fire hit the Kievsky, Kuibyshevsky and Kalininsky districts, the report states.

"Some people were killed at the scene and other people died in ambulances and hospitals," the press service said.

According to the Interior Ministry's data, a man born in 1941 was wounded from shrapnel when artillery strikes hit the area of Gladkovka.