Three killed in Ukrainian shelling of market – DPR
Ukrainian troops shelled the Mayski market in Donetsk on Monday, killing three people, Donetsk People’s Republic officials have said. According to them, the number of wounded has reached eighteen.
Yan Gagin, an adviser to the government in Donetsk, told reporters that a woman and a child are among those killed.
City officials also reported that a hospital and a gas pipeline were damaged.
Local media said that 10 rockets were launched at Donetsk from a Ukrainian-controlled area.
Russia, along with Donbass forces, and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling residential areas and killing civilians. Moscow insists that it only strikes military sites.
On Sunday, Sergey Gayday, a senior Ukrainian-appointed official, said that Russian forces shelled the city of Lisichansk, also in Donbass, killing three people, including a six-year-old boy.
Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.
