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At least 25 people killed and 20 injured in attack on market in occupied Donetsk — Meduza [1]

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Date: 2024-01-21  

Russian soldiers stand next to the bodies of those killed in the attack on Donetsk’s Kirovskyi district. January 21, 2024. Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA

On the morning of January 21, the authorities of the self-proclaimed “DNR” reported an attack on the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk. Alexey Kulemzin, the Russian-appointed “mayor” of Donetsk, urged residents in the Kirovskyi district, where the Merkuriy market is located, to stay in their shelters at around 10:20 a.m. Moscow time.

Fifteen minutes later, Kulemzin reported that there were injuries as a result of the attack. Half an hour later, he said that shells fired by Ukraine’s Armed Forces “crashed in a busy part of the Tekstilshchik microdistrict, where there are rows of merchants, stores.”

A few hours later, Kulemzin and the head of the self-proclaimed “DNR” Denis Pushilin reported that 25 people were killed in the attack. According to posts on the War in my Eyes Telegram channel, one man was killed in the courtyard of a residential building in the Kirovskyi district.

At least 20 people were injured, including two children, reported Pushilin.

According to the head of the self-proclaimed “DNR,” the neighborhood where the market was located was hit by a “combined strike from 152- and 155-millimeter caliber artillery launched from the direction of Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka.” Ukraine’s Armed Forces, which Pushilin and Kulemzin accused of deliberately shelling civilian infrastructure, have not yet commented on these reports. According to independent outlet iStories, the distance between Ukrainian Armed Forces’ positions in the Ukrainian-controlled towns of Kurakhove and Krasnohorivka and the location of the attack in Donetsk “corresponds to the range of barrel artillery.”

A man next to the body of his wife, who was killed in the attack Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA

Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry commented on the attack and Russia’s Interior Ministry called on “international organizations and states to condemn the strike.” Russia’s permanent mission said that the attack on Donetsk would be one of the topics on the agenda at the U.N. Security Council meeting on January 22, which will be attended by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Based on reviews on the Yandex Maps app, the Merkuriy market, which was hit in the attack, was popular among local residents.

iStories notes that the attack was likely the deadliest Donetsk had seen since the start of the war in 2014.

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[1] Url: https://www.meduza.io/en/feature/2024/01/21/at-least-25-people-killed-and-20-injured-in-attack-on-market-in-occupied-donetsk

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