Ukrainian forces have used US-supplied cluster bombs against civilians in Donbass
A damaged building in Donetsk, DPR, August 8, 2023. © Sputnik/screenshot
Ukrainian artillery and rocket attacks on the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on Tuesday claimed the lives of three civilians and injured 11 more, among them a child, said the acting head of the Russian region Denis Pushilin.
“Throughout the day, Donetsk was under intense fire by the Ukrainian armed forces,” Pushilin said on his official Telegram channel. He said three people were killed and 11 wounded in the three districts of the city of Donetsk and the nearby town of Shakhtyorsk, including a child born in 2012 and a team of electrical workers trying to repair a power line.
“All the wounded are being treated by doctors,” Pushilin added.
The shelling also damaged 10 public buildings – including a school in Donetsk, a kindergarten in Makeevka and a factory in Shakhtyorsk – and 24 residences in Donetsk and Yasinovataya.
In total, the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) in Donetsk registered 95 volleys with a total of 349 rounds. Among them were cluster munitions supplied to Kiev’s forces by the US last month.
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The attack began in the early hours of Tuesday, with the Ukrainians using 122mm rockets as well as 152mm Soviet and 155mm NATO guns. Over the weekend, Donetsk was targeted by cluster munitions that started fires in three districts.
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.
Renewed shelling comes amid news reports that the much-publicized Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces has stalled and that Kiev’s Western backers were losing faith in its prospects.
Moscow recognized the DPR and the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic as independent states in February 2022. They have since joined Russia alongside the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, following referendums last September.
