At least five civilians, including two children, were injured on Sunday as the city of Donetsk came under fresh rocket and artillery attacks from Ukrainian forces, the local authorities have said.
The projectiles struck dozens of civilian buildings, mostly apartment blocks in Donetsk and several nearby settlements, the local Joint Center on Control and Coordination (JCCC) reported.
A three-year-old girl and a boy aged 11 were among those injured in the strikes, the JCCC, which monitors what it describes as Ukrainian war crimes, said in a series of Telegram posts. It did not provide any further details about their condition. At least three other civilians sustained injuries during the shelling, the JCCC added.
The strikes hit a public nursery, a kindergarten facility, and a children’s hospital in Donetsk, according to the JCCC. Kiev’s forces fired over 170 projectiles at the city and surrounding areas, it said, adding that Soviet BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers and 155mm artillery systems were used in the attack.
Photos published by the JCCC show buildings damaged in the attack. Ukraine’s forces “have been hitting Donetsk’s residential neighborhoods in a targeted shelling for two hours” on Sunday, a statement from the organization read. It noted that some projectiles hit apartments directly, leaving people injured.
Donetsk has been subjected to heavy artillery and missile attacks by Ukrainian forces on an almost daily basis since Russia launched its military operation in late February. Before this, the city endured low-intensity fighting and occasional shelling from the Ukrainian army since 2014, when the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics rejected the government in Kiev in the aftermath of the Maidan coup.
Earlier this week, another rocket and artillery strike by Kiev’s forces killed six people in the city.
This fall, the two Donbass republics, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, formally joined Russia after voting overwhelmingly in favor of the move in referendums.