The Ukrainian City of Donetsk is believed to be under heavy bombardment as at press time.
NIGERIAN STUDENT NARROWLY ESCAPES BOMB BLASTS IN UKRAINE
BY ABDULMUMINI ADEKU.
………………….As Ukrainian Army prepares launch fresh assault on
Donetsk.
…………………..Thousands of Nigerian may be trapped in Ukraine
A Nigerian third year medical Student by name,Mr Olusegun Ogunyale narrowly
escaped a series of bomb explosion just seconds after leaving his former
student abode of Donetsk in UIkraine.
In an exclusive investigations by Paedia Express Multimedia
in Lagos,Nigeria,the father of the student, Evangelist Sunday Ogunyale told this
reporter at his Kadiri Street Residence in Idiagbon Area of Ifako-Ijiaye ,Lagos State that he had
been full of prayers for the safety of his only son since the news broke to him
since last week of his narrow escape.
He explained that what made the entire scenario strange to
him was that aside from the worrying distance to Russia and Ukraine ,officials
of the Nigerian Embassy in Moscow ,which is also believed to be accredited to
the Ukraine have left much to be desired as they were usually not helpful.
His words:”what can we do than to commit my son to the hands
of almighty God ,I cannot travel to Russia or Ukraine due to the distance”
“The question you will even want to ask is what the relationship
between Nigerians and the embassy officials in that country,it is funny as all
they do is to share money at the embassies and nothing else”
A source had told
paedia Express multimedia that her landlords son was trapped in school
as a result of the war in Ukraine presently.
She speaks:”my landlord son narrowly escaped a bomb blast in Donetsk ,Ukraine just last week,he is a
student of Medicine and has been there for at least three years now and has
another two years to finish up his education before the current crisis”
“Because of the crisis presently in Ukraine he had to
transfer his medical schooling from Eastern Ukraine to western Ukraine and that
means tat he had to pay another $700 to change his school”
“He said that as they were moving away from the City of
Donetsk ,bombs exploded behind them and he is not the only Nigerian student
schooling at the moment in that country”
“He was studying for a degree in Medicine and Surgery at the
Olabisi Onabanjo University in ago-Iwoye,Ogun State but due to his student
activism he was always having problems with the leadership”
“They said that they could not find one of his Biology
results and we suspected that this was
all in an attempt to frustrate the young man,he studied Zoology at degree level
and because his heart was on medicine he
chose Ukraine as the place to study”
The source however did not disclose the actual university where
Mr Sunday Ogunyale was in Donetsk,Ukraine before the recent incident but it is
believed that he is a student of the National Medical University in Donetsk,
Ukraine
DONETSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian
troops took control of a checkpoint Tuesday on the western edge of the
main rebel stronghold of Donetsk as the government makes further gradual
advances to quash pro-Russian separatist forces in the east
An Associated
Press reporter saw a tank waving the blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag in
the suburb of Marinka, which lies on a key road into Donetsk. Rebel
combatants could still be seen in sniper positions in a nearby area
closer to the city center.
As government troops try to tighten
their grip around Donetsk, officials in Kiev are warning of a spike in
Russian troop numbers along the eastern border, arousing renewed fears
of an incursion by Russia.
The
onslaught against separatist fighters has focused recently on besieging
the main rebel strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the
smaller but strategically important town of Horlivka.
The
wild card is whether Russia, which has been building up troops along
the nearby border, will come to the rebels' rescue. President Vladimir
Putin has faced increasing pressure from Russian nationalists urging him
to send in the army to back the insurgency.
After
not seeing much fighting other than a rebel attempt in May to seize the
city airport, Donetsk has come under shelling in recent weeks. City
authorities estimate that around 200,000 people in the city of 1 million
have left their homes. The airport is closed, but buses and trains are
still running.
The West has also
accused Russia of most likely providing the insurgents with
surface-to-air missiles that may have been used to shoot down a Malaysia
Airlines passenger jet over rebel-held territory on July 17, killing
all 298 people on board.
Despite
the presence of pro-government forces at the western entrance into
Donetsk, defense officials said that the situation there remained in
flux.
A spokesman for the
Ukrainian military operation in the east, Oleksiy Dmitrashkovsky, said
further fighting was expected to ensure full control over Marinka.
On
Monday, security officials announced that government troops had taken
over Yasinuvata, a town just north of Donetsk that is the site of an
important railway junction.
Security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that victory would enable the army to cut off a key rebel weapons supply route.
The
government has for several days claimed success in another key tactical
goal of driving a wedge between Donetsk and Luhansk. Fighting in towns
between those locations has taken a heavy toll on government troops,
however.
Around 20 kilometers
(12 miles) north of a town that has seen some of the bitterest clashes,
a team of more than 100 international investigators from Australia, the
Netherlands and Malaysia is traveling daily to the site where Malaysia
Airlines Flight 17 was shot down. The recovery and investigation
operation was delayed Monday after shooting was heard at the search
location.
Lysenko said
Tuesday that 45,000 Russian troops equipped with 160 tanks, more than
1,300 armored vehicles, 192 military airplanes and 134 attack
helicopters are at the moment stationed along the border. NATO's current
estimate is that there about 20,000 Russian troops massed just east of
Ukraine's border.
Russia
escalated its troop presence along the Ukrainian border earlier this
year, but then pulled back large numbers of soldiers in May.
Both the United States and Ukraine say Russia has again built up its military presence since then. Moscow denies that claim.
Ukraine
has accused Russia of firing artillery and rockets at Ukrainian forces
across the border to back the rebels. Moscow has rejected these
allegations.
A small
international monitoring mission was last month authorized by Russia to
observe a portion of the border that separatists rebels have under their
control. The section of border under observation is very small,
however, and the monitoring team minimally staffed.
Also
Tuesday, New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch said rebel
forces have worsened the humanitarian crisis provoked by the ongoing
conflict in eastern Ukraine by targeting medical workers.
The
group said in a statement that separatists had "threatened medical
staff, stolen and destroyed medical equipment and hospital furniture,
and compromised the ability of civilian patients to receive treatment."
"Civilians
are already bearing the brunt of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," HRW
researcher Yulia Gorbunova said. "Interfering with the medical
assistance they need is simply unconscionable."
Fighting
across eastern Ukraine has forced more than 285,000 people to flee
their homes, according to U.N. figures released Tuesday.
The
U.N. refugee agency said more than 117,000 have left for other places
inside Ukraine, while another 168,000 people have crossed into Russia.
___
Peter Leonard in Kiev contributed to this report.
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