At least three people have been killed and ten others injured in a Ukrainian attack on the city of Donetsk, the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) said on Monday, adding that another civilian died in a nearby town.
The statement of the JCCC, which tracks Kiev’s recurring shelling of Donbass, came after Denis Pushilin, the acting head of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said that a total of two districts in the city center came under bombardment, which claimed several lives and destroyed a bus. He added that those who were hurt are being taken care of.
The DPR head also said that Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack that damaged a water treatment plant in the town of Yasinovataya in Donetsk Region.
According to the JCCC, Ukrainian forces also shelled the town of Gorlovka, north of Donetsk, killing another civilian.
Donetsk Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said the attack on the Voroshilovsky district in the city center also set fire to two cars, adding that shells were falling near the marriage registration hall. Later, he said that the shelling also damaged several buildings and cut a power supply line.
He uploaded photos from the scene showing the charred remains of several vehicles, with firefighters working to put out fires, and buildings with smashed windows.
Earlier in the day, the JCCC registered at least half a dozen artillery and missile attacks launched in the direction of the city, most of which used heavy 155m and 152m shells.
According to Kulemzin, this came after Ukraine fired 72 artillery rounds between Sunday evening and Monday morning, targeting both Donetsk and nearby areas. He said that these attacks killed one 31-year-old man and injured another person, while damaging several residential buildings.
Donetsk and other Donbass cities have been under constant Ukrainian attacks which have claimed numerous civilian lives since 2014, when the region broke away from Kiev after a Western-backed coup in the Ukrainian capital.
In early March, the JCCC estimated that Ukrainian attacks killed a total of 4,453 civilians in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic since February 2022, when the conflict between Moscow and Kiev erupted. Officials also estimated that more than 900 people were killed in Russia’s Lugansk People’s Republic within the same period of time.