2024-01-21 17:46:00
(CNN) — At least 25 people were killed and 20 wounded, including two children, in Ukrainian bombings on Sunday near a market in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to authorities.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a market and shops in the city’s Kirovsky district were targeted by multiple launch missile systems, with the shelling apparently coming from the Avdiivka direction.
CNN has not been able to independently verify this claim.
Kyiv “has once again committed a barbaric terrorist act against the civilian population of Russia,” the ministry declared. “There are a large number of victims.”
Russia responded with outrage to previous Ukrainian attacks, but has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians following its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened an investigation and “all those involved and responsible for this and other terrorist attacks on our soil will suffer inevitable punishment,” the ministry said.
Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said the attack came on the busiest day of the week for the area and search teams were searching for weapon fragments.
Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow said in 2022 it would recognize as Russian territory, an annexation process illegal under international law.
The region, controlled partially but not entirely by Russian forces, is on the front line of fighting in the east.
The Donetsk attack comes at a time when the fronts of the war are largely static.
The Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to make significant progress and its troops are now under pressure from Russia at several points along the 1,000-kilometer-long front line.
Kyiv’s troops withdrew from the village of Krokhmalne in the northeast of the country, near the border between the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions, and an army spokesman stated on Ukrainian television that the position of its troops was moved to ” where it is most advantageous for them to destroy the enemy.”
Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said the Donetsk attack will be one of the topics to be discussed this Monday during a meeting of the UN Security Council, according to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. .
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a terminal of Novatek, Russia’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas, in the port of Ust-Luga, Russia, on Sunday. (Credit: Alexander Drozdenko/Leningrad Region Governor/Telegram/Archyde.com)
Earlier this month, eleven people, including five children, were killed in Russian S-300 missile strikes in the region, according to the local military administration. After these events, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, declared: “Russia must feel – and always feel – that none of these attacks will remain without consequences for the terrorist state.”
Ukraine attacks oil terminal in Russia
On the other hand, a Ukrainian defense source told CNN that they attacked a Russian oil terminal located about 100 kilometers west of St. Petersburg with a drone, which constitutes the latest example of Ukraine’s ability to attack inside Russia.
A video posted overnight by Leningrad regional head Alexander Drozdenko showed what appeared to be a major fire at Novatek’s facility in Ust-Luga, located on the Gulf of Finland. Later videos showed firefighters battling the flames. According to authorities, there were no injuries.
According to Novatek’s website, the Ust-Luga complex processes liquefied natural gas products into various types of fuel, such as naphtha, jet fuel, fuel oil and diesel.
The Ukrainian defense source said the products are used to supply, among others, the Russian Army, adding: “The successful attack on this facility will complicate the enemy’s logistics.”
A Ukrainian Defense source stated that they carried out a drone attack against the oil terminal. (Credit: Yuri Zapalatsky/Kingiseppsky District Administration Head/Telegram/Archyde.com)
The attack comes three days after a Ukrainian intelligence source claimed responsibility for another drone operation targeting the St. Petersburg region. “This is a new stage,” the source told CNN. “Our targets are military installations and oil depots.”
Elsewhere, Ukraine also carried out drone strikes in the Tula, Smolensk and Belgorod regions.
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