Multiple victims in ‘fierce’ Ukrainian strike on Donbass – officials

Residential and healthcare facilities came under fire in Makeevka and Donetsk, according to local officials.

The town of Makeevka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic came under intense shelling on Tuesday, according to the region’s acting head, Denis Pushilin. Ukrainian forces reportedly targeted residential districts, damaging multiple houses, as well as a school and a hospital complex.

At least one person was killed and several dozen injured, including two young children, according to preliminary data shared by Pushilin. “Late in the evening, the enemy carried out fierce strikes on residential areas and the hospital complex in the Chervonogvardeysky district of Makeevka,” the official wrote on Telegram.

The number of victims was later revised to 36 as more people sought treatment for various injuries. The victims are receiving the necessary medical care, even after multiple local healthcare facilities were damaged in the attack, officials added.

It is unclear what type of munitions might have been used, but the blasts were felt by “most” residents of Makeevka and Donetsk, Pushilin claimed. The DPR mission to the Joint Center for Control and Coordination recorded dozens of hits by self-propelled multiple rocket launcher systems over the past day.

The regional capital of the DPR also came under fire on Tuesday, with at least two people reported killed and several injured earlier in the afternoon, according to the mayor of Donetsk, Aleksey Kulemzin. In total, the Ukrainian forces attacked the city and its suburbs two dozen times on Tuesday, firing some 166 shells from 155mm artillery provided by Western nations, the official claimed.

Donetsk has been a frequent target of Ukrainian strikes since the outbreak of the conflict between Kiev and the Donbass republics back in 2014, as Ukraine’s military established heavily fortified positions around the city. The attacks on DPR’s capital intensified after the launch of Moscow’s military operation against Kiev in February 2022, leaving scores of civilians killed and delivering major damage to infrastructure.

The Donetsk People’s Republic became part of Russia last October together with the People’s Republic of Lugansk and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, following referendums in which the local populations voted overwhelmingly in favor of the move.