Ukraine war: 25 reported killed in shelling of Russian-controlled city of Donetsk

Twenty-five people were killed and 20 injured when Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, the Russian-appointed head of the Donetsk region, said on Sunday.

According to Alexei Kulemzin, the city’s Russian-installed mayor, Ukrainian forces bombarded a busy area where shops and a market are located. Mr Pushilin said the city was shelled by Ukrainian artillery. There was no immediate Ukrainian comment.

Mr Pushilin said emergency services were working at the scene and that forensic specialists were trying to collect fragments of the weapons used in the attack.

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the attack “a barbaric act of terrorism” committed by Ukraine, saying it was carried out “with the use of weapons supplied by the West”.

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“The Russian side categorically condemns this treacherous strike against the civilian population,” the ministry said.

Donetsk is one of four Ukrainian regions which Russia claimed to have annexed last year in a move condemned as illegal by most countries at the UN general assembly. It does not fully control any of the four regions.

A fire broke out at a terminal of Russia’s largest liquefied natural gas producer on the Baltic Sea early on Sunday, amid reports of drone sightings in the area.

“No casualties as a result of a fire at Novatek’s terminal in the port of Ust-Luga. Personnel were evacuated,” Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region, said on the Telegram messaging app early on Sunday.

“A high alert regime has been introduced in the Kingiseppsky district (which includes the port),” he said, noting that the blaze was “localised”.

Mr Drozdenko did not say what caused the fire at the Novatek terminal at the port of Ust-Luga in the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland, about 170km (110 miles) west of St Petersburg and 35km from the Estonian border.

Local official Yuri Zapalatski said the fire started just before 2.45am local time, reports Agence France-Presse.

Russian news outlet Shot reported on Telegram that people in the area had heard a drone followed by several explosions. St Petersburg-based news outlet Fontanka said at least two drones were spotted in the sky flying towards St Petersburg before the reports of the fire at the terminal.

Baza, a Russian news outlet known for its security services contacts, posted on Telegram footage of big flames shooting into the sky over what seemed like an industrial complex.

Elsewhere, Russian forces have taken control of the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday.

A Ukrainian spokesman said the capture of the village had “no strategic importance,” adding “these are five houses”, and that Ukrainian forces were still holding the frontline.

Russian president Vladimir Putin showed his intention to visit Pyongyang soon, a report by North Korea’s state media KCNA claimed on Sunday.

Last week, Mr Putin met North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui on her visit to Russia and during the meeting thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his invitation to visit, KCNA said citing a foreign ministry official.

Russia thanked North Korea for its support and solidarity in the Ukraine war, and the two also expressed serious concerns over provocative acts by the United States and its allies against Pyongyang’s sovereign rights while agreeing to co-operate in regional affairs, the report said. – Guardian