Locals sift through wreckage following the shelling of the food market in Donetsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday, when 25 people were killed. Photo by Alessandro Guerra/EPA-EFE
More than two dozen civilians were killed in shelling that struck a market in Russia-controlled Donetsk over the weekend, according to the region’s Kremlin-appointed head, who blamed the deaths on Ukraine, though Kyiv has denied responsibility.
The market in the Tekstilshchik micro-district of Donetsk was hit Sunday, killing 27 people and injuring another 25, including two teenagers, Denis Pushilin, the Russia-installed head of the Donetsk region, said in a Monday statement on Telegram. Advertisement
He described the shelling in an earlier statement as “monstrous” and having occurred when the market was at its “busiest.”
He also declared Monday a day of mourning.
Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said he would raise the attack during an upcoming Security Council meeting, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported.
Russia’s foreign ministry blamed Ukraine for “the terrorist act,” stating in a Telegram statement on Monday that Kyiv forces “deliberately targeted” the market with six artillery rounds.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has denied responsibility, with its Joint Press Center of the Ukrainian Defense Forces fighting on the southern front stating it wasn’t involved in combat operations there. Advertisement
“Donetsk is Ukraine!” it said in a statement Sunday night. “Russia will have to take responsibility for the lives of Ukrainians that have been taken.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine also blamed Russia for the attack in his nightly address on Sunday, but without mentioning the market by name.
“On this day alone, Russian savages shelled more than a hundred cities, towns, and our Ukrainian villages in nine regions: from Chernihiv and Sumy to Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad. The most brutal Russian attacks were in Donetsk region. Unfortunately, there are wounded and dead,” he said.
“Russia will be held accountable for all this terror — it must be.”
Donetsk is one of four regions of Ukraine that are at least patricianly occupied by Russia. President Vladimir Putin announced the illegal annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022.
War in Ukraine: a look back at the year after Russian invasion
Ukrainian demonstrators rally in Kyiv on February 12, 2022 to show unity amid U.S. warnings of an imminent Russian invasion. Photo by Oleksandr Khomenko/UPI | License Photo
