FIFTEEN bodies have been pulled from the scene of an attack on a convoy carrying refugees near Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, Kiev said today.

Rebels said that no-one had survived the attack. Those fighting Kiev’s fascist-backed regime have blamed it on the central government currently carrying out a so-called “anti-terrorist operation” in the east of the country.

Kiev in turn has blamed the rebels, who say they don’t have access to the heavy weaponry used in the assault.

Kiev claimed it had also penetrated deep into rebel-held Lugansk yesterday, with fighting taking place on the streets of the city.

A volunteer battalion reportedly took the town of Ilovaysk near the biggest rebel-held city Donetsk.

Donbass battalion commander Semyon Semenchenko, who was wounded defending the town, said Kiev’s troops had destroyed several checkpoints but that fighting was ongoing.

Volunteer corps have been vital in Kiev’s bid to put down the anti-fascist uprising in the east, as many regular troops have refused to fight.

Many of the volunteers come from the fascist organisations that made up the core of the Maidan protests that toppled elected president Viktor Yanukovych in February.

Right Sector, one of the most right-wing and violent of these groups, issued a 48-hour ultimatum on Sunday, threatening to withdraw its forces from the front and raid Kiev’s Interior Ministry after some of its activists were arrested trying to smuggle weapon caches out of the east.

As the deadline passed without any attack on the capital, Right Sector claimed it “won even without engaging in battle,” though it did not expound on the nature of this victory.