Images and videos uploaded from the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Monday morning show several victims of what appears to have been a missile attack on the city.
Donetsk is held by Russian-backed separatist forces and is the capital of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
The videos, geolocated by CNNshow that there were at least several deaths on a main street in the city center, in addition to a large number of injuries.
Missile remains can be seen at the site. Where it came from and who fired it is still unclear.
“At the moment, we can talk about the highest number of civilian casualties as a result of a single attack,” DPR leader Denis Pushilin told Russian television.
“About 20 people [morreram]but the number is being updated,” he told Russia 24, calling the attack a “war crime”.
A local news outlet quoted the DPR Territorial Defense Headquarters as giving the same number.
The DPR People’s Militia accused the Ukrainian side of launching the missile, saying: “Ukrainian armed formations once again used the ‘Tochka-U’ tactical missile system in residential areas of Donetsk in order to [causar] genocide [de] civilians and destroy important civil infrastructure in the capital of the Republic.”
The Ukrainian military has the Tochka missile, which was also used by Russian and separatist forces in the past.
THE CNN contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense for comment.
Ukrainian officials denied the Russian reports to Reuters, the news agency reported.
Pushilin told Russian state television network Russia-1: “We managed to shoot down the Tochka-U tactical missile system, but even the wreckage caused so much damage.”
“The worst is the loss of civilian life. People were in line at the ATM, at the bus stop,” she added. Separately, the DPR health ministry spoke of 23 injured being admitted to hospital.
*With information from Reuters
Source: CNN Brasil
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