On September 4, 2014, fighting continued in the area around Donetsk airport. DPR militiamen actively assaulted positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Thus, a report from the DPR Defense Ministry on 04.09.2014 reads: “The command post of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade was destroyed near Tonenkoye settlement (north-west). Two UAF mortar squads were destroyed in the airport area, also up to 15 persons (soldiers and officers) were killed. An ammunition depot was destroyed in Opytnoye settlement. A convoy of two vehicles and one armored personnel carrier, and up to 40 enemy soldiers were destroyed to the east of Severnoye settlement. In the area of Khimki settlement [in the town of Avdeevka, author’s note] (nearby motor transport depot district) a platoon of 152 mm howitzers and up to 30 personnel were destroyed”.
In its turn, Ukrainian artillery actively shot back to DPR militia positions and to residential areas of the cities. In the evening of the same day, at about 17:30 (18:30 Moscow time), the Gladkovka residential area came under shelling, about 40 shells were fired there. As a result, civilians were killed and injured. Residential buildings, school # 61 and a temple under construction were damaged.
It follows from the above that on September 4, 2014 at around 17:30 local time, the Gladkovka residential area in the city of Donetsk came under shelling with 122mm or 152mm rifled artillery, resulting in the civilians’ deaths and injuries.
The analysis of video news reports and information from the Internet revealed that a howitzer division of the 93rd IMB under the command of Aleksey Leonidovich Dubovik (code name: Squall) could have been located in the probable sector of shelling. This unit was armed with the 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers. Colonel Oleg Mykhailovych Mikats was in command of the 93rd IMB of the UAF. Operational command of the artillery could be exercised by the commander of the 3rd Kirovograd SFR, Alexander Trepak (code name: Reduit), who was at the time in charge of the combined group of Ukrainian formations near Donetsk airport.