According to Ostap Cherny, they were killed for laying down arms and defecting to the local civilians, Itar-Tass reported.

The incident occurred during talks between the LPR militia and government forces in the town of Privolye:

“On Thursday, we got word from Lisichansk the army was trying to storm the city. We dispatched a group for talks. A column of Ukraine’s national guards was blocked from behind by civilians, including women and children. While the talks proceeded, shots began to be fired and seven members of the Lugansk militia were killed and sixteen others injured. Thirty men from the Ukrainian brigade laid down arms and defected to civilians. According to the latest information available, Right Sector militants shot them all.”

"The people were in an open field and nobody was hiding when the lethal shots were fired. The ensuing shootout lasted for about half an hour. Mortar shells were exploding and homes were set on fire,” the LPR militia’s spokesman said.

He claimed that eleven armored vehicles of Ukraine’s National Guard were involved in the clash, the news agency said.

“We have detained the commander of one of the vehicles. He had been abandoned by his own forces,” Cherny said.

The Ukrainian army on Thursday reportedly by mistake started shooting at its own forces near the town of Rubezhnoe in the Lugansk region, killing four soldiers and wounding 16 more, military doctor Gennady Moralishvili has confirmed.

RT is reporting that Moralishvili "confirmed that Ukrainian armed forces opened fire at their own people, who earlier surrendered," and added that most of those injured currently in the local hospital are civilians.