According to regional prosecutors, at least six lives were lost and 13 individuals were injured due to Russian assaults in eastern Ukraine’s front-line Donetsk region on Friday. In the town of Myrnohrad, located northwest of Donetsk, which is under Russian control, a missile from Russia resulted in the death of four people and left 10 wounded. The missile hit close to an office building and a bus stop.
Images from the sites of the impacts, revealing severely damaged building fronts and a bus with broken windows, were shared online by Vadym Filashkin, the governor of the Donetsk region. Additionally, a charred car, seemingly propelled to the side by an explosion, was visible.
Further to the northwest in the town of Kostiantynivka, Russian forces targeted a local business, which culminated in the death of two civilians and three injured. This town, located northwest of Bakhmut, was captured by Moscow after a series of skirmishes the previous year.
The series of Russian attacks caused at least six deaths and 13 injuries in Donetsk, as confirmed by officials. However, the accounts could not be verified independently by Reuters. Donetsk, where Russian military forces are partially stationed, is frequently subject to airstrikes and bombardments by Russia.
Russia, however, refuses to admit its involvement in attacking civilians, as well as the nation’s infrastructure during the Ukrainian invasion, despite the significant loss of human lives.
Furthermore, on Friday, claims by a Russian official suggesting that Kyiv was planning to wreak havoc on its own power dams and point fingers at Russia for the assault were dismissed by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry labelled the accusation as an intimidation ploy, arguing that such statements intended to terrify Ukrainians and bamboozle global communities and media.
The ministry asserted that Ukraine causing harm to its own citizens or damaging national infrastructure defies logic. If the aim is to ‘blame Russia’, there’s no need to resort to such measures as Russia’s own war crimes serve that purpose efficiently, added the ministry.
This comes after Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was reported by the Tass news agency to have stated that Ukraine was planning to demolish two dams as another brazen attempt to provoke Russia.
Zakharova has accused Ukraine of planning to demolish the Kyiv hydropower dam on the Dnipro River outside the nation’s capital, and the Kaniv reservoir downstream. However, she failed to provide any supportive evidence for her claims. Additionally, the Kakhovka reservoir, even further downstream on the Dnipro, suffered destruction last year resulting in the inundation of vast southern Ukrainian territories, which led to considerable damage. Ukrainian authorities placed the blame on the Russian occupying forces, who had control over the dam when the calamity occurred, alleging that they deliberately destroyed it. Nonetheless, Russia rejected these claims, pointing the finger at Ukraine instead. – Reuters