Five civilians were killed and 12 others were injured in Ukrainian shelling in Donetsk, in Ukraine’s breakaway east, on Saturday, pro-Russian local authorities said in a statement.
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“As a result of shelling by Ukrainian forces, five people were killed and 12 others were injured in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR),” the local authorities’ general staff said in the statement posted on Telegram.
Donetsk is the de facto capital of the self-proclaimed “republic” of Donetsk, in the Donbass coal basin in eastern Ukraine.
Partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, this region is the subject of fierce fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russian forces which launched an offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
“Early in the morning, massive enemy shelling targeted the capital of the People’s Republic” of Donetsk, the pro-Russian military forces of the DNR said in a separate statement, claiming that more than 200 artillery shells 155 mm caliber fell on several districts of Donetsk on Saturday.
According to Russian news agencies, the bombings hit a cinema and a cafe in the city center in particular.
