Shells hit residential buildings, park as Kiev’s forces bombard Donetsk

One person has been killed and several injured, as Ukrainian forces continue to shell the city of Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine. Among their targets were several residential apartment blocks, a train station and a city park, reports say.

One person has died and three have been injured, after a strike hit the yard of a block of flats in Rosa Luxemburg Street in the city, self-defense forces told Interfax news agency. The yard is located not far from the buildings of the former regional department of Ukraine’s Security Council. Currently, local militia is stationing there.

“The residential areas are being targeted by the strikes,” Fyodor Berezin, deputy defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic, told RIA-Novosti news agency. I personally witnessed a strike on Rosa Luxembourg Street: howitzer projectiles hit three nine-story buildings. And that’s in broad daylight. Everything is covered with pieces of broken glass, the lobby is destroyed, the gas pipeline is damaged and the cars nearby are in pieces.”

Berezin said that it was Ukraine’s National Guard carrying out the artillery strikes.

Explosions have also been reported from around the city’s train station, the head of the “South-Eastern Front” information center Konstantin Knyrik told Interfax.

“The strikes are happening non-stop,” he said.

Earlier Tuesday, it was reported that the evacuation of the civilian population from the central areas of the city was under way as artillery shells hit multi-story residential buildings in Batishchev Street and Trenev Street.

Three missiles fell into the city park’s ponds.

More than 2,000 people remain without gas supply in Donetsk, according to the city council’s website.

Many others remain without water and electricity due to shelling damage.