Ukrainian forces used a HIMARS multiple rocket launcher in the attack, according to the Russian authorities
The Ukrainian military struck the city of Donetsk with a US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on Friday, killing at least four civilians and injuring four more, according to the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin. The rockets were equipped with shrapnel munitions, he added.
Two women and two men died in the strike, Pushilin said. Another woman was severely injured and three others sustained moderate injuries, he added.
The victims were driving down a local road, RT’s Viktor Miroshnik reported from the scene. RT also obtained footage showing the immediate aftermath of the strike. The video shows a road littered with debris and missile fragments, with several damaged buildings, fences and trees nearby.
A passenger vehicle is seen on the side of the road, with its windshield visibly damaged by what appear to be several small fragments of the projectiles. The bodies of the victims are seen lying near the car.
Kiev’s forces have regularly launched attacks in Donbass and other Russian regions bordering Ukraine. On Monday, one person was killed and three more injured in a series of Ukrainian missile and drone attacks on the DPR.
Monday’s attack caused fires and significant damage to civilian infrastructure, including a market, the central department store, and a bank, according to the region’s head.
Last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Kiev of deliberately committing atrocities against civilians in Donbass, including mass killings of the elderly and drone strikes on residential homes.
“It is a deliberate policy that has already been elevated to the level of state doctrine,” the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at the time.
The DPR and its sister republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), declared independence following the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. After years of refusal by Ukraine to implement the Minsk Agreements and Kiev’s continued shelling of civilian areas in the breakaway regions, Russia launched its military operation on February 24, 2022. In autumn of 2022, the two republics, along with Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, officially joined Russia following a series of referendums.
