Ukrainian shelling kills four in Donetsk, Moscow says

MOSCOW: Ukrainian shelling killed four women in the Russian-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, the region´s Moscow-installed authorities said.

Donetsk has been occupied by Russia and its proxy forces since 2014 and lies less than 10-kms from intense fighting on the eastern front.

“Four women born in 1986, 1980, 1961 and 1952 were killed on Petrovsky Street near public transport stop School No. 106,” the authorities said in a Telegram post.

The attack wounded two others, a girl born in 2018 and a man born in 1987, while separate shelling of a nearby town injured an elderly man in his 70s, they said.

The head of the region´s Russian-backed administration, Denis Pushilin, called the shelling “barbaric” in a post on social media and blamed the Ukrainian army.

Kyiv did not immediately comment but denies targeting civilians in Donetsk and other Russian-held areas in the east and south of the country.

The reported attack comes as Ukraine evacuates almost 9,000 civilians from towns on its north eastern border amid a fresh Russian ground assault.