At least 25 people were killed and 20 injured in a strike at a busy market in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, Moscow-backed officials said.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of a sharp escalation of attacks on civilian areas in the past two months.
Shattered storefronts and broken glass were seen in videos shared by Russian state media, along with what appeared to be bodies lying on the ground nearby.
“At this time, information about 25 deaths has been confirmed. At least 20 people have been injured,” said Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian-controlled government in the region.
He blamed Ukraine for the attack, calling it a “heinous” artillery attack on a civilian area.
Ukraine did not immediately comment and AFP could not immediately verify the circumstances of the attack.
Officials said the attack hit a southwestern suburb of the city, less than 15 kilometers from Ukraine’s eastern front.
– ‘People were shouting’ –
Donetsk resident Tatiana said she heard a projectile overhead and hid under her market stall.
“I saw smoke, people screaming, a woman crying,” she told a local media outlet.
“Where is anything military here? It’s just a market,” another resident, Tatiana, told the same store. “This is one of the strongest blows in recent times,” she said.
The toll is one of the deadliest in the city since Moscow launched full-scale hostilities against Ukraine in February 2022.
Donetsk, occupied by Russia and its allies since 2014, has been repeatedly targeted by what Moscow has called indiscriminate Ukrainian shelling.
Moscow called Sunday’s attack a “barbaric terrorist attack” that showed the need for its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“Security threats and terrorist acts may not be committed from the territory of Ukraine,” the Foreign Ministry said.
– Gas terminal on fire –
News of the attack came as Russia reported another fire in its energy infrastructure, this time at a gas terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga.
Earlier this week, Kiev claimed responsibility for two attacks on oil depots in Russia, including one in the same Leningrad region where Ust-Luga is located.
Operator Novatek said there were no casualties and that the fire was “currently localized” at the site, some 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of St. Petersburg, near the Estonian border.
The fire was caused by an “external factor”, the company said, without providing further details.
Ukraine, which has targeted Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure throughout the nearly two-year conflict, did not immediately comment on the incident.
“No casualties as a result of a fire at the Novatek terminal in the port of Ust-Luga. The staff was evacuated,” said Aleksandr Drozdenko, governor of Leningrad Oblast.
He shared a photo of firefighters spraying water on a large fire at the terminal.
The RIA-Novosti news agency reported that a 100 cubic meter container was on fire.
The Ust-Luga complex processes natural gas condensate into naphtha, jet fuel and marine fuel components, according to Novatek’s website.
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