Europe

Russia claims 25 civilians dead in Ukrainian shelling of occupied Donetsk

Kyiv’s security forces claim responsibility for drone strikes on energy and weapons facilities in Russia

Locals at the scene following the shelling of the food market in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. Photograph: EPA

Daniel McLaughlin
Sun Jan 21 2024 - 19:00

Moscow-installed officials said at least 25 people were killed by Ukrainian shelling of the occupied city of Donetsk, as sources in Kyiv’s security forces claimed responsibility for drone strikes on energy and weapons facilities in Russia.

Occupation officials in Donetsk, 650km east of Kyiv, said at least 20 people were also hurt when shells allegedly fired from nearby Ukrainian-controlled territory hit shops and a market in the city on Sunday. There was no immediate comment on the incident from Kyiv.

Russia’s foreign ministry claimed what it called the “neo-Nazi” Ukrainian government had conducted the “barbaric terrorist” attack “with the support of the United States and its satellites”.

Without offering evidence, the ministry claimed that weapons supplied by the West were used in the shelling, which “once again confirms its direct involvement in the conflict and makes it complicit in the criminal acts of the Ukrainian regime”.

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If confirmed, it would be one of the deadliest strikes by Ukraine’s forces on civilians in occupied territory since the start of Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour, which has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions of Ukrainian civilians. Kyiv insists it takes great care not to hit civilian targets in territory that it wants to liberate and reintegrate.

Ukrainian drones were responsible for explosions in several regions of western Russia on Sunday, including at a big gas facility outside St Petersburg and a weapons plant in the Tula region, according to sources in Kyiv’s GUR military intelligence agency.

“The Ust-Luga [gas] terminal in the Leningrad region is an important facility for the enemy. Fuel is refined there, which, among other things, is supplied to Russian troops,” an unnamed GUR source told Ukrainian media.

“A successful attack on such a terminal not only causes economic damage to the enemy, depriving the occupiers of the opportunity to earn money to wage war in Ukraine, but also significantly complicates the logistics of fuel for the Russian military,” the source added.

The terminal on the Gulf of Finland is a big hub for Russian gas and chemical exports via the Baltic Sea, and is owned by Novatek, the country’s biggest producer of liquefied natural gas.

Footage posted on social media showed at least one drone flying over the plant and then fire erupting at part of the facility. The company blamed “external interference” for a blaze that it said had forced “technological processes” to be halted at the site.

GUR sources also told Ukrainian media that its drones had struck the Shcheglovsky Val plant in Russia’s Tula region, which makes advanced air defence systems and other weapons. Video purporting to show an explosion at the site also appeared on social media channels on Sunday.

Last week, a Ukrainian drone strike caused a huge blaze at a large oil facility in the Bryansk region of western Russia, and GUR sources said the agency’s drones had also hit a gunpowder plant in the Russian province of Tambov, but local officials said it continued to work normally.

Kyiv is putting considerable resources into its fleet of surveillance and attack drones and into sabotage operations in occupied territory and in Russia itself, at a time when the front line in eastern Ukraine has hardly moved in more than six months and Kyiv’s summer counteroffensive made no significant headway.

Russia said on Sunday that its troops had seized the village of Krokhmalne in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Kyiv said its troops had withdrawn to stronger positions and noted that Krokhmalne consisted of only five houses and had a pre-war population of 45.

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Daniel McLaughlin

Daniel McLaughlin

Daniel McLaughlin is a contributor to The Irish Times from central and eastern Europe

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