Drone captures strikes in Ukrainian village
STORY: The aerial images showed columns of smoke rising over several burnt out buildings, with shells blasting near approaching armored vehicles.
The location of the video was verified by the roads, buildings and fields which matched satellite imagery. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video or the date it was filmed.
On Monday (June 20) Russian-backed separatist forces said they had taken the village, which lays beside the main southern road towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk.
Vitaly Kiselev, an assistant to the self-styled interior minister of the Russian-backed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), was quoted by TASS new agency as saying the village of Toshkivka, about 15.5 miles south of Sievierodonetsk, had been taken.
The governor of the Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai, told Ukrainian television that pro-Russian forces were trying to break through the lines of Toshkivka.
Ukraine's general staff said on Sunday (June 19) Ukrainian forces had repelled heavy fighting near Toshkivka and a number of other villages around Sievierdonetsk.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield claims of either side.
