Photo: Mikhail Sokolov/TASS

Three people were killed when a minivan carrying civilians was blown up by a landmine at a Ukrainian checkpoint near the contact line early on Wednesday, the speaker of the Donbass special operation, Andrey Zadubinny, has said, TASS reports.

“There were five people in the Volkswagen Transporter car (minivan) that struck a mine this morning at the Novomikhailovka checkpoint. Two were killed at the scene and another one died on the way to a hospital,” Zadubinny said.

The speaker said the minivan had arrived from the territory not controlled by Kiev. “It tried to bypass a line 600 meters from the checkpoint having ignored all the road signs and hit a mine,” he said.

Ukraine’s national police in the Donetsk region have confirmed the fact.