Young mother killed by Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk
Ukrainian troops have launched an artillery strike at the city of Donetsk, its mayor Aleksey Kulemzin, said in a Telegram statement on Monday. The attack, which has killed at least one person and left five civilians injured, came on Russia Day – a national holiday marking the establishment of the modern Russian state.
The strike targeted a square near the city railway station and a nearby market, local residents told Russian media. It damaged several local shops, witnesses told daily newspaper Izvestia. According to one local person, residents in Donetsk expected an attack by Ukrainian forces on Russia Day, celebrated on June 12, and there were fewer people at the market than usual.
The attack has killed a 20-year-old woman, Kulemzin confirmed. Earlier media reports also suggested that her two-year-old child had been injured, but the mayor denied those reports, saying the child was safe and being cared-for by an aunt. Three other women and two men were also injured in the strike, according to the mayor.
Media in Russia reported that Ukrainian troops targeted the city about ten times in their attacks throughout the day. The Ukrainian projectiles damaged several private residences and apartment blocks, as well as a local school building, local authorities said. Kiev’s forces also shelled the area using the 155-amm artillery provided by Western nations, Izvestia reported.
Ukrainian forces have repeatedly shelled not just the Donbass region but also areas around the border with Russia since the conflict began in February of last year. Such attacks have repeatedly led to civilian deaths. In May, a woman and her four-year-old son were killed in one such attack when a Ukrainian projectile struck their house, causing a fire.
Just a day before that deadly May attack, six children were injured in another Ukrainian strike on the Donbass city of Lugansk. In late April, four civilians were killed in a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Bryansk Region.
