Ukraine targeting and killing civilians in Donetsk with artillery strikes

Johnny Miller
Press TV, Donetsk

This is Kuibyshivs'kyi District, Donetsk. A child is wounded by Ukrainian shelling. An ambulance took her to hospital. But a second did not arrive fast enough, so a local volunteer, Andriy put the child’s mother in the back of his van and drove her there himself.

Ukraine has a history of shelling civilians in Donetsk since 2014. Over recent days they have increased the slaughter. More than a dozen have been killed in the last four days. Nowhere in the city is safe. Two supermarkets were hit in the space of two days.

We pass a market. It caught on fire due to a strike. Flowers are placed outside, for a woman killed at the same spot a few weeks ago.

This is the central cathedral of Donetsk. Many will be outraged. But at least it did not kill.

A few minutes later, we arrive at the site of another strike. There is a body on the ground, and two more inside.

The woman was later identified as Maria Pirogova, a young deputy of the DPR authorities. Another killed was Vadim Lobozov, a singer in a music band.

This is Andriy, the volunteer who took the mother to hospital in Kuybyshevsky.

They shell the center of Donetsk on purpose. To scare people, to create an unstable zone in the city, so that people will complain, to provoke. To me, they are not warriors who fight with other warriors. They fight civilians, so I think they do not deserve to be called military. They should be classified as war criminals by a military court.

While Russia launches major attacks on energy infrastructure, in a shockingly underreported story, Ukraine is launching attacks on civilians, it claims to be its own citizens. Few people are on the streets today as more strikes are expected.

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