At least 25 people are killed in shelling attack on the Russian-held city of Donestsk in Ukraine with Moscow blaming Kyiv for strike
- WARNING – GRAPHIC CONTENT: At least 25 people were killed in the attack in Donetsk
- Another twenty people were injured during the attack on the market
- Kiev has not yet responded to the rocket attack
At least 25 people have been killed in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk after a rocket attack, the region’s Kremlin-appointed governor said.
Denis Pushilin, installed by the Kremlin after Russia annexed the region in September 2022, said a Ukrainian missile had hit the city, which is currently on the front line of the Russian invasion, and another 20 people were injured after it hit a busy market ended up in the city. .
Pushilin said the causality figures could change in the coming hours, with the Russian Foreign Ministry calling the strike a “barbaric terrorist attack.”
Kiev has not yet responded to the attack.
Photos of the aftermath of the attack, too harrowing to publish, show bodies strewn across the streets around the market.
A man was seen mourning the death of his wife, who was covered with a green and white cloth
Others had to pick things up again after the attack
Ukraine reportedly targeted a busy market, although Kiev has not yet commented on the attack
Although almost all covered with sheets, some were left uncovered and their last expressions can be seen on their faces.
One man was seen mourning the death of his wife, who was covered in a green and white cloth, while others were captured while cleaning up the destruction caused to the city.
A Donetsk resident named Tatiana told local media that she heard an incoming projectile overhead and hid under her market stall.
“I saw smoke, people screaming, a woman crying,” she said.
The missile attack was the latest in a series of attacks on Russia and occupied territories launched in the past 24 hours.
Ukrainian kamikaze drones successfully hit a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) processor and a rocket factory on the same night.
Video footage showed two massive explosions at the Novatek factory in the Leningrad region’s Ust-Luga port, setting off a raging fire at the site, which is just 130 kilometers from St. Petersburg.
A Ukrainian infantryman stands guard in the trenches on the front line, towards Bakhmut
Ukrainian infantrymen stand guard in the trenches on the front line, towards Bakhmut
A Ukrainian official separately claimed that drones struck the Shcheglovsky Val defense company in Tula, which produces the Pantsir-S and Pantsir-S1 air defense missile systems used to defend key locations including Vladimir Putin’s palaces.
There were also Ukrainian attacks on the Smolensk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, prompting clashes with Russian air defenses in one of Kiev’s most intense nights of war attacking military-affiliated targets in Russia.
Huge fireballs were seen flying through the sky at the strategically important site of Ust-Luga, which in 2022 processed almost 7 million tons of gas products, a major export that added an estimated €5.29 billion to Putin’s war chest through sales to the EU alone already .
Local media reported that drones struck the Novatek facility at 3:20 a.m. local time, although the Russian Defense Ministry has not yet reported any attacks.
Novatek’s Ust-Luga processes gas condensate, which is itself a processed version of LNG, and turns it into products such as jet fuel, gas oil and naphtha, and ships them around the world.