Kiev’s forces subjected the city to massive rocket artillery fire, destroying a passenger bus and reportedly killing multiple civilians
A destroyed passenger bus in Donetsk, Russia on April 28, 2023. © RT
Ukrainian shelling has left seven civilians dead and more than a dozen injured in the Russian city of Donetsk, regional official Denis Pushilin said on Friday. Residential areas were reportedly hit by fire from multiple rocket launchers, with a passenger bus being destroyed and a local hospital suffering damage.
“Today, the central districts of the capital of the republic were subjected to another brutal shelling by the armed units of Ukraine,” Pushilin, the interim head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), wrote in a Telegram post. According to the official, Ukrainian forces targeted a local hospital, an urban park, and several residential buildings.
The seven fatalities reportedly included one child and resulted from the destruction of a bus. The vehicle apparently suffered a direct, or a very close hit, bursting into in flames, footage from the scene showed. All of the passengers were said to have been killed, with the vehicle completely burned out.
Ukrainian forces also directly struck Donetsk’s traumatology center, inflicting material damage. The attack damaged the DPR’s only magnetic resonance imaging scanner, the local health ministry told TASS.
The shelling also damaged and partially destroyed multiple residential houses across the city. Nineteen civilians received injuries of varying severity and were hospitalized, according to local officials.
Formerly part of Ukraine, the DPR was incorporated into Russia last October together with the People’s Republic of Lugansk (LPR) and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions. The areas joined Russia following referendums in which the local populations overwhelmingly backed the move.
