KIEV, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian military is not using ballistic missiles against the cities of eastern Ukraine, only a ground operations are being carried out, the speaker of the National Security and Defense Council said Sunday.
"Ukrainian military does not shell the cities, only a ground operation is being carried out," Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing on Sunday, commenting on the previous reports by the Rossiya-24 television about Kiev-led forces using ballistic missiles.
Rossiya-24 said, citing a source in the militia forces, that Luhansk had been attacked with Tochka-U ballistic missile systems.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a certain number of Tochka-U launchers, auxiliary equipment and missiles remained in several former Soviet republics, about a hundred of them in Ukraine.
Moscow has repeatedly voiced its concern over reports of Ukraine’s government troops using ballistic missiles against independence supporters in the country’s east.