MOSCOW, Russia: Ukrainian shelling killed four women in the Russian-controlled eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Thursday, region’s Moscow-installed authorities said
Donetsk has been occupied by Russia and its proxy forces since 2014 and lies less than 10 kilometers (six miles) from intense fighting on the eastern front.
The authorities said in a Telegram post that “Four women born in 1952, 1961, 1980 and 1986 were killed on Petrovsky Street near public transport stop School No. 106”.
The attack injured two others, a girl born in 2018 and a man born in 1987, while separate shelling in a nearby town wounded an elderly man in his 70s, they said.
In a post on social media, Denis Pushilin, the head of the Russian-backed regional administration, blamed the Ukrainian army for the “barbaric” shelling.
Kyiv did not immediately comment, but denies targeting civilians in Donetsk and other Russian-held regions in the east and south of the country.
The reported attack comes as Ukraine is evacuating nearly 9,000 civilians from towns on its northeastern border amid a new Russian ground offensive.
