LAST UPDATE: 17.35
Moscow today claimed that 23 people had been killed by a Ukrainian missile in the city of Donetsk, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of a “war crime”.
According to a recent report by the Russian Investigative Committee, “at least 23 civilians (…) including children were killed and at least 18 people were injured.”
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced the deaths of “20 civilians”, adding that “28 people, including children, were seriously injured and are being treated.”
According to Konashenkov, the Ukrainian army fired a “Tochka-U” missile at a residential area in Donetsk, a large industrial city and self-proclaimed “capital” of the homonymous pro-Russian separatist territory.
An earlier report, released this morning by the local health ministry, said 16 people had been killed and 23 injured.
“The use of such weapons against a city where there is no shooting range for the armed forces (…) is a war crime,” Konashenkov said in a statement.
The Ukrainian army has categorically claimed to have fired a missile at the city. “This is definitely a Russian missile or some other type of ammunition,” Ukrainian military spokesman Leonid Matyukin told a news conference.
Asked about reports of a Ukrainian attack in Donetsk, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov said it was a tragedy.
A video taken by a Reuters photographer in central Donetsk shows damaged and burned vehicles. Several corpses and a fragment of a projectile with smoke emerging from it were visible.
No accounts were able to be verified by an independent source, neither by Agence France-Presse or Reuters.
On its Telegram account, the Donetsk militia’s defense posted photos showing bloodied corpses lying in the street in the rubble, as well as a small bus with broken windows.
According to the Donetsk militia, the separatist anti-aircraft defense intercepted a Ukrainian “Totchka” missile, the “wreckage” of which caused casualties.
The leader of the Donetsk separatists, Denis Pushilin, said on Russian television that it was a rocket containing cluster bombs, which, according to the French agency, are banned in most countries, but not in Russia and Ukraine.
“If (the rocket) had not been shot down, there would have been even more casualties,” Pusilin said.
According to him, the victims were waiting at a bus stop and others waiting to buy a ticket.
Russian television broadcast images of an orange bus that had been severely damaged, as well as several vehicles that had been engulfed in flames.
Donetsk separatists, militarily backed by Moscow, have been at war with Kyiv since 2014 and their troops are currently taking part in the military offensive in Ukraine.
Donetsk city center has largely escaped the fighting, especially since the conflict began on February 24.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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