Smoke rising in Luhansk (File photo). Photo: Anatolii Stepanov / AFP
A Ukrainian strike on a Russian-controlled village in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine killed seven civilians, including three children, on Monday night (local time), Russian-installed officials said on Tuesday.
The strike hit Krasnorichenske, in part of Luhansk region held Russian forces, Luhansk's representative to the Joint Centre of Control and Coordination (JCCC) said on Tuesday.
"As a result of artillery shelling by Ukraine's armed forces on the village of Krasnorichenske, seven civilians were killed, including three children (twins, a girl and a boy born in 2021, and a girl born in 2015," the representative said in a statement.
Reuters was unable to verify battlefield reports.
The JCCC was set up as part of the failed Minsk Agreement - a deal between Russia and Ukraine designed to mediate and deescalate the conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine that started after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
The strike comes after 13 people were killed and others wounded in a series of explosions in the separatist-run city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to its Russian-backed mayor.
Alexei Kulemzin blamed "punitive" Ukrainian shellfire for the deaths. There was no comment from Ukrainian officials.
Donetsk has been controlled by Russia's proxy authorities since 2014.
They have repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of targeting the city.
Independent confirmation is hard to come by on the ground in separatist-held areas of the east. However, local authorities said nine 150mm shells were fired at the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk, from a village to the west of the city.
Local leader Denis Pushilin accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians at a bus-stop, a shop and a bank.
Although Russian forces have seized areas of the Donetsk region further south since the invasion began in February, they have struggled to push the Ukrainian army back from the outskirts of the city itself.
- Reuters/BBC